Groundbreaking Science: The Guide to Ki Control -- Son Gohan
by Breezytealy
Summary: For the first time ki-control - an ancient secret of the martial arts - has been laid bare in all its intricacies for the novice to learn. Now the author (a scientist and a superhero) has revealed how to harness the energy of the body to develop a "sixth sense", how to increase strength, how to fly and far, far more. The revelations in this guide are sure to echo for years to come.
1. i Preface

_**Uploader's note:**_

 _Sup! I'm one of Pan's students on the PFN. Yeah,_ that _PFN. I know what you're thinking - "I can't do_ martial arts... _" right? Well, the Pan Fighting Network has started to expand and you don't have to do that stuff anymore. We're learning about this amazing thing called_ ki-control _. Superpowers. Teach says not to use that word but that's what it is. All the instructions are in a textbook her Dad wrote, and it's designed to be something you can teach yourself._

 _But there's one problem. All that knowledge is stuck behind the paywall, and for something this huge? That's just not right._

 _So. I'm rectifying that._ I'm _releasing the book. Sure it's a copy-paste job and all the figures/pictures I'm having to screenshot and host elsewhere but it's free! If you_ really _want to pay the toll it's on [ groundbreaking-science dot com ]. Go nuts._

 _I'll catch up on what's already been released when I can then update when new sections come online. Good luck._

 _-Liberator_

 _(PS - Sometimes the science is tricky. Take the Professor's advice and skip to the next paragraph or section and come back to it waaay later. I don't get all of it either and I'm progressing super-fast (no pun-intended) so it's possible. )_

* * *

 ** _Preface_**

* * *

The research discussed in this guide is supported by a stack of papers to be published in a special edition of Natural Science (June 804, vol 254). It was conducted in near secrecy over the past decade and is the largest contributing factor to my apparent productivity drop after receiving tenure.

Controversially, the studies have not yet undergone peer-review. Keeping the work a strict secret was my one condition for publication (given its personal nature) and the editors only agreed to the compromise after a few choice demonstrations. It's not often one gets to barter with a journal and I have to admit I relished the opportunity. I've been informed a call will go out soon for replication studies - promising priority publication I might add - which I hope will catch any errors. It is a huge honour and a weight of trust I do not take lightly.

This accompanying book for the public was my idea, given how impenetrable research papers are. However it was my daughter who settled on the name, tone and structure on my behalf. She says I can be quite a dry teacher when I get caught in the minutiae of my work, but that my bedtime storytelling was always far more fun and ultimately informative. There is a fair amount of truth in that. So, this book is primarily about ki and how to use it, yes. But in truth, the world of ki and my understanding of it is inextricably woven into the story of my family and friends. It is therefore, in part, our story I will tell.

[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/168653849332/preface#one ]

 _By my then five and-a-half year old daughter, Pan. The least - but still marginally - incriminating of her masterpieces that to this day hangs in my University office._

In this spirit I will at times be sharing moments between us. Messages, anecdotes in the form of interview transcripts, and even seemingly nonsense scraps we've found around our homes that all help colour our story. The tenuous grasp we have on anonymity has continued to slip in recent years (it now being kept by the good grace of far too many) and, with Universal politics yet again playing out on our doorstep, we decided now was the time to come clean.

Some of the contributing voices may surprise you in their familiarity and many stories seem fantastical, even mythical in nature. I will give context where I can but will not have space in the book to provide evidence. If you wish to take the stories as hypotheticals or allegorical you are more than welcome; the burden of proof is on the claimant, afterall. But for those that do take my word, please don't judge particular people harshly. Their hard work and misdirection served us well and they are still heroes many times over in their own right - just not necessarily in the ways you have been taught.

I hope this book will show you something new, and I hope one day to learn from you in return.

— Son Gohan - Associate Professor of Biophysics at Satan City University, and The Great Saiyaman

* * *

For Pan.

* * *

 _ **About the Author**_

Son Gohan is an Associate Professor of biophysics at the University of Satan City. A high-flier from a young age, he graduated top of his class at high school and UoSC. He stayed on for his PhD, working with Professor Jukyou on his thesis, "Modelling the Self-Regulation of Cellular Systems within a Probabilistic Framework" which he received in Age 783, aged 26. Since then he has undertaken a 3-year postdoctoral position in East City University, before being offered tenure-track then a permanent position back at UoSC with the Department of Biophysics in Age 792. He works there to this day.

Outside of academic pursuits, Professor Son is an accomplished martial artist and has been trained in the use of ki. At 16 years old he took up the secret identity of The Great Saiyaman and became a well-loved local superhero in Satan and East City, hanging up his cape in Age 792 to be succeeded by his apprentice Papayaman.

Professor Son lives with his wife Videl, a fellow martial artist and co-founder of the charity and volunteer force "the Emergency Relief Effort". They split their time between their homes in Satan City and the Mount Paozu Mountain District.


	2. 1 Introduction - A Brief History of Ki

_**1 INTRODUCTION: "A Brief History of Ki"**_

* * *

 ** _"'Work well, study well, play well, eat well, and sleep well.' My first master taught me that and that's the best advice I can give!"_ \- my father, Son Goku.**

This first chapter is dedicated to Dad, who mastered everything in this book... but wouldn't have understood a word of it.

* * *

Ki may be an unfamiliar concept, but you do know it. If I venture to speak to most about ki-blasts or auras or flying, the best I can hope for is a polite smile. After all, it's common knowledge that superpowers can't be real. But if I ask you how a room drops when _that_ person storms in, or of the cozy feeling when lounging in silence with friends, of the spark of a partner's touch, or about the deep, yawning connection to the wider world we feel in moments of sheer awe… you know it already. And ki most definitely knows you.

I wouldn't wish to give the impression ki is responsible for the entirety of those sensations. Chemicals in the brain like dopamine and oxytocin play a large part in governing how we feel and act. But there's that last element - how our emotions can become physical and arrest us completely at times - that can never quite be explained away as the sum of brain cells firing. The wonder of life itself can be broken down to the cellular level without losing any majesty (to me at any rate), however I can tell you from experience building these components back up again to model an entire person is somewhat more challenging. The task is made a fraction simpler when ki is taken into account. Ki is the thread that weaves us together, taking us from a collection of cells to one being. And beyond the self, it is ki that draws us together as people.

You are most likely not consciously aware of your ki-sense, but the ability to detect its presence within and around you already exists and can be brought to the forefront. It is possible to turn this sense into a literal power, starting from being barely sensitive to ki to gaining conscious control quickly. How quickly that is, is up to you.

This chapter will outline the traditional understanding of ki and where that needs to be updated, the different components of ki and its natural use in the world. The next chapter will move towards developing your own abilities.

 _ **1.1 The Traditional View**_

* * *

Ki, in a word, is energy. In three, it's the energy of life. It's not an energy like electricity or heat. The most familiar analogy would be light as it has particles and a field but even that falls apart quickly and… I'm getting ahead of myself. Let us ease in with a traditional, serviceable understanding, gently reframe parts of the explanation, then build up.

The sensing and control of ki does not require the user to be proficient in the martial arts. However, the majority of ki-users on Earth gained their experience through this route and it is the most natural way to pick up the prerequisites. Masters of old would typically introduce ki early as a concept to a student. Only after years of intense physical and meditative training to hone the body and mind would the student then start to practice ki-control. Students may then dedicate their lives to perfecting a few techniques in safe environments, occasionally sparring, until they themselves could lead others in the same training. Very rarely would there be a true conflict in which to test these techniques.

Studying ki wasn't always an enlightened pursuit. Contrary to what was often taught as a form of self-flattery, one does not have to be a good person to use ki - life would be a lot easier for our planet if that were the case(!). A few students did not take the lessons on responsibility to heart and would leave schools for a life of crime using their new abilities. The more unscrupulous masters dangled the chance of preferential ki-training in front of their richest students to fund their schools, increasing the power of the richest families. Knowledge of ki then became a two-tier system and it's unsurprising that in days gone by the use of ki was feared or derided. As ki-training was dropped from schools, fewer students learnt to pass on the knowledge. Nowadays ki as an idea has fallen from wider public consciousness completely.

Each of these schools had their own physical and ki-based techniques that were closely-guarded secrets. A school without a unique style or technique was not an attractive school to attend; why learn there when you could learn all that and more in the next district over? Espionage was rife to ruin the competition and some of the largest schools were the most underhanded. Even now, with only two schools teaching ki-control and both masters good friends, some techniques remain off-limits as a tacit agreement to preserve a sense of identity. The same, mostly friendly rivalry exists between ki-using families.

* * *

 _November 798 at Capsule Corporation, between myself (then 41), my younger brother Son Goten (31) and his close friend Trunks (32) of Capsule Corporation fame. All three of us are experienced martial artists and ki users._

Gohan: _Have you ever taught each other your fathers' signature techniques?  
_ Goten: _Well_ that's _a silly question -  
_ Trunks: _Not formally. The Kamehameha was forbidden at home. So, naturally…  
_ Gohan: _Aah, so you_ do _know it?  
_ Trunks: _I picked it up even before Gotenks* was around. If Dad asks I have never,_ ever _done it. And neither has Bra.** [laughs]  
_ Goten: _Your Dad must know the move by now.  
_ Trunks: _Of course! But he'd never admit it.  
_ Goten: _The Kamehameha's a little like his Galick-Ho, by the way. Which I've also never, ever done._

 _(*Gotenks (31), a member of both families who will be discussed in later chapters; **Bra (18), Trunks' younger sister.)_

* * *

Naturally then, very little by way of older documentation exists for me to draw a general, traditional explanation from. Fortunately I happened to have had a variety of teachers over the years - both formal and informal - and I contacted as many as possible to get their ki introductions. The distilled version is thus:

 _"Ki is the energy of life, a type of fire created in the body. Life surrounds us and therefore so does ki. It is carried in the breath, generated in the internal furnace known as our centre when we inhale, and our exhalation encourages the flow of ki through our bodies where it can be used. Whilst humans have the special capacity to manipulate ki, animals also have breath and so have ki themselves. Plants may not have lungs but they do breathe; a plant starved of any air will wither and die, its ki dying with it. The planet itself breathes, with air in the soil and bubbles in streams, and the centre of the planet itself is a great furnace of fire generating ki._

 _"Like the breath, ki is owned by a life but is not restricted to the body. It extends beyond the self as an aura, with the energy itself waiting for a command on which to act. Beyond the fraction that is needed for the body to function, ki can be withdrawn back to the body to amplify actions, effectively increasing physical strength. The practised student will be able to detect changes in ki aura intensity and flow in the people around them, identifying illness or shifts in concentration. Feeling ki and talking to your own is a difficult skill to develop. However, with quiet contemplation and training in the breath one can draw ki from their centre and direct it outwards, concentrating it in the hands to the point of true visibility, then unleashing literally explosive effects on the world around them. Mastery of ki then imparts a need for responsible behaviour on the student, and the most potent abilities must only be used in defence."_

There are alternate but equal explanations of ki as a type of wood instead of fire. In systems with five elements (metal, water, wood, fire and earth) these elements create and disrupt each other. Masters noted that wood is nourished by water, creates fire through burning, and metal in the form of axes can break wood. Likewise, water creates life and therefore ki, and metal can destroy it (not necessarily through axes, the ingestion of heavy metals can cause a gruesome death). In particular they observed that breathing on a near-extinguished fire can bring it back to life, much like adding wood. They argued then that fire came from ki and must be aligned to wood, rather than ki being fire itself.

This kind of explanation is not limited to Earth. The Namekians, a peaceful race of aliens I've had the pleasure of meeting and learning much from, emphasise the connectedness of their ki to the world around them. They impress upon their children stewardship responsibilities and fighting to preserve all forms of life. In contrast the Saiyan warrior race focussed on the differences between their stronger ki and animals', instead taking the view their relative superior strength was a gift to utilise. I use the past tense here for good reason, but more on that tangent later. Earth teachings of ki exist somewhere between these two extremes. The common threads - the importance of breath, projecting inner strength outwards, and all life having ki - are consistent throughout the Universe.

From experience I can tell you there are a number of misconceptions in the above explanations. My teachers were aware of them themselves, but found small untruths were easier to teach on the first pass. Neither the traditional elements nor the planet generate or destroy ki, it is life itself "creating" it within the body's centre. The breath doesn't carry ki, although breath and ki-control are closely linked. However, people and animals do have unique auras and sensing their turbulence is a useful skill, and ki can both greatly augment physical strength and be projected outwards.

How these misconceptions arose before modern science is easily understood when seeing the world through ki, as we shall see next.


	3. 1-2 Life, the World, and Genki

_**1.2 Life, the World and Genki**_

* * *

After initially being handwaving and poetic in my descriptions, I'll now demonstrate the world through the sense of ki. Ki has an intensity (a brightness) and a signature. As you may guess given the term, a ki signature is the unique pattern a particular life form's ki possesses and enables a ki-senser to distinguish between individuals. Life forms of the same species will have an underlying common pattern to their ki, although life forms with more complex consciousness like humans will have that reflected in a greater signature complexity. Therefore plants will appear more similar in signature than humans. This seeming discrepancy is further entrenched by an evolutionarily advantageous use the brain's processing; it is important for us to be able to tell the difference between humans and not so much individual plants, thus this is what the mind portrays.

[ Figure 1a,b ]

[ _groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/168766753052/1point2#one_ ]

 _The river valley near Central City in optical light and ki._

To illustrate this I have provided some imagery of a landscape, both in the visual and as understood through ki.

Disappointingly this is a mere approximation to what is experienced. The sense of ki extends beyond a visual understanding and impacts all the conscious senses, memory retrieval and beyond. A fair number of non-ki-users may experience something like this already; synaesthesia. In this condition one sensory experience triggers another in a predicable fashion. This could be the hearing of music accompanied by dancing colours, or names cause the synaesthete to taste strong flavours. It is thought cross-wiring between sensory-processing regions in the brain causes this. As I have been a ki-user since a young age my brain developed its own understanding of ki, an explicit internal sense, with minor contributions of the other senses that I can approximate as a synaesthetic experience. For ki-users coming into the ability later in life the experience will very much truly overlap with the other senses as the brain attempts to process the new information. Despite those caveats I have done my best to put the world on paper.

The scene depicted above is one of my own scribbles of the river valleys to the east of the Central Steppes. My vantage point is known to us as "The Spot". Many children have secret hideaways from their parents and this is the view from my daughter Pan's and her close friend Bra's. For most families the clubhouse is in the woods out-back or the park nearby, not six timezones away. That sounds like an alarming lapse of parenting I know, but our families have a different definition of keeping safe. No cell phone was necessary to check on them, they promised to never conceal their ki signatures so we could find them should be need to. Honestly, I was more worried for the wildlife than the girls.

I've labeled various ki signatures in the image to help explain the world as seen by myself and my friends and family.

[ Figure 2 ]

[ _groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/168766753052/1point2#two_ ]

1) Where there are plants there is ki. The ki of a plant, like all life forms, exists within and extends faintly around the plant. This external extension of ki is known as an aura. Meadows then, like those pictured, are picturesque seas to walk through; the higher the grass the more misty the glow. The ki isn't bright enough to obscure a person by any means - one would not be invisible in ki in a corn field - but the ki adds a fun hum to the scene. My memories of picnics include a faint, lively glow around my family caused by the grass and trees surrounding us.

You'll notice the heather, purple in the first image, is a similar colour in ki the grass. Whilst grass and heather are different species and have a distinguishable ki signature, it is individuality and sentience-induced complexity that "colour" ki further. In ki then these plants are, compared to animals and people, very similar. Sadly, flowers themselves are part of the same plant so do not have a different ki signature. Your other senses then will have to help you experience a flower. There are no trees in the image (the trees all secluding The Spot behind me and higher up the mountains) but their ki works in a similar fashion, with a glow in the tree and an aura around trunk and leaves. Ki is not impacted by the wind by any great deal, and so a tree swaying in a breeze leaves a very faint after image of ki behind it. As you can imagine, willow trees in summer are beautiful to watch.

[ Figure 3 ]

[ _groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/168766753052/1point2#three_ ]

 _The ki signature of a willow tree. The curtain of branches exists in ki, too._

2) Looking down, the ribbon of water through the landscape is strikingly bright. One can see why bodies of water were thought to have a life of their own. Rivers are full of life themselves, but even removing the fish and other animals, the water itself glows faintly still with ki. Rivers have their own ki signatures that changes throughout the year. If you know it well, one can identify a river by the water.

Older teachings say bubbles in the water create the ki as a type of breath. However, this seemingly logical idea developed before the invention of microscopes introduced an alternate explanation. The reality is indeed that ki is generated in the river, but by small, simple protozoa, algae and bacteria instead of bubbles. What about cleaned water like tap water? This water has no ki signature. Indeed, the old masters did note that boiled water was without any ki, but it was easily explained away - either the fire itself overwhelmed and killed the ki, or the metal of the pot it was boiled in destroyed it. To support this, ki-users sought out water made hot without fire or metal to see if it contained life. Surprisingly, you can find examples. The volcanic hot springs on Bunbuku Island contain life in water that fits this description, seemingly supporting the argument. We now know the creatures in these waters are extremophiles, a fascinating group of organisms that are able to survive in high temperatures, extremes of acidity or alkalinity, and possibly the harsh environment of space itself.

Here's another unbelievable story - I'd have to cover the events at some point so may as well start here, and I apologise for the exposition. When I was four I was kidnapped and forced to fend for myself in the Break Wastelands for six months. It was there I learnt to read ki as a survival skill to find food, avoid predators and crucially, to find clean water. For those with long memories they may remember the brief overthrowing of King Furry some fifty years ago by a man named Piccolo. My father, Son Goku, and his friends thankfully prevented the destruction of West City, but Piccolo's defeat was not forgotten by his son of the same name. The son became a self-appointed rival to my father, and the final of the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai became a battle of vengeance. Much to the younger Piccolo's irritation my father won that fight, too. Piccolo didn't fulfil his wish of revenge until a number of years later when my then estranged uncle kidnapped me. Seizing the fortuitous situation and my father's willingness to sacrifice his life to overpower my then stronger uncle, Piccolo killed them both and became my new kidnapper. His eventual goal was a convoluted act of dramatic irony, I suppose, attempting to train me to kill my father on his eventual resurrection a year later. I'm… guessing claiming people can come back to life will lose me a few readers, even with official records of it happening across cities in the past decades. I implore the sceptical, then, to take this as a fantastical story and concentrate on my point. But be warned, my stories do get stranger.

I don't remember much from this jaunt to the Wastelands, being so young. I do know it took a few weeks for me to get used to sleeping outside and catching my own food. Whilst an Earthling through birth, Piccolo's ancestors are from the planet Namek. He was the person who taught me how to find clean water through ki-sense, water being the only sustenance he required and thus skilled in finding. Drinking contaminated water can mean life or death in or out of the wild, and it is an ability I've passed on to all the kids. They've known how to find and purify their own water since they were small. Detecting the glow of bacteria in the water and what's tolerable is a fun exercise that I hope wouldn't take you too much trial and error to learn. Although, maybe my definition of fun is a little warped.

(I didn't take to the ways of evil life, by the way. It didn't much suit our Piccolo in the end either, and our family has kidnapped him in return. To this day Pan often uses her childhood name for him, Uncle Piccoyo.)

3) The visual sky is a beautiful display of colours, not just the blues but the warm palette of dusk and dawn to that peaceful black of night. It has a huge personality. In ki however, it seems all but nothing. The air itself does contain life with bacteria, and there are fluctuations by time of day and in clouds, or subtle differences over land and sea. But nothing as easily discernible and enthralling as the sunset. Or so it would appear.

I didn't notice the ki of the air around us until I left Earth as a child for the first time, travelling to planet Namek with family friends. Leaving the atmosphere was the strangest sensation, a strong sense of solitude rushing towards me and a cacophony retreating behind.

There's an old story back from when the world was thought to be at the centre of the Universe. The Moon, planets, Sun and other stars circled the Earth, embedded on rotating spheres. Philosophers said these spheres made the most beautiful, heavenly music as they danced. Tragically we would never know the melody - having been on the Earth our entire lives and listening to the song constantly, we would believe the song to be silence. I wouldn't learn the music of the spheres story for a number of years but, as we left the planet and I felt that envelope of ki fall behind me, that was the first time I could appreciate the song of the sphere I lived on. Needless to say planet Namek's song was completely different, the ki in the air feeling like a soup in its unfamiliarity. With that in mind I can understand why the highest masters thought the Earth itself was imbued with ki, even if they had not experienced looking back at the Earth from space themselves.

4) The faint sky is punctuated by bird life. Sometimes invisible above low clouds or due to their height, their movement across the sky is detectable either way in ki. Concentrating on birds will teach you a number of things. A bird, before song, swells with ki as it inhales in anticipation and sparkles in time with its warbles. This is very much guidance we should take on the importance of breath in encouraging ki to flow around the body.

[ Figure 4 ]

[ _groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/168766753052/1point2#four_ ]

 _A murmuration of starlings with ki. Arrows indicate direction of movement. The ki appears like that from one organism rather than a flock._

Flocks of thousands of birds like starlings are called murmurations and are a beautiful sight late-winter, dancing in unison and creating beautiful shapes across the sky. The same beauty exists in the ki. The birds have an aura like all life, and it's easy to see in a murmuration why aura are useful. The shifts in direction of the birds are preceded moments before by waves of ki across the flock.

Subtle nudges in ki are created as the birds attempt to maintain distance from each other and this influences the transient shapes created, allowing the murmuration to appear as a connected whole. Aura between people can work in a similar fashion, and I will delve into the details within a future section.

5)  
In the real image a herd of animals were not visible, well-hidden in the tall meadow grass. You could probably walk straight passed them, none-the-wiser. But in ki they stand out as though they weren't camouflaged at all. Hiding from a ki-senser is extremely difficult, although a technique of concentration developed on Earth we shall cover makes this possible. In my time in the wilderness I had to learn how to hunt to eat. Sensing the ki of animals who thought they were safely hidden from predators gave me the element of surprise in my hunts. It does feel like cheating and one does feel guilty, but hunger wins out.

Those who are able to suppress their ki completely can hide fully amongst grasses such as these. I've had to do this myself in many a life-or-death situation before. At least, in those situations I was more aware of the predator's capabilities than the hares I caught were. Whilst when painting I could not see the creatures with this ki signature, we do know aura typically reflect the size of the life form, and the aura's intensity falls away faster than an inverse-square from the body. Therefore it was possible for me to tell from miles away, without even recognising the ki signature of the animals, that the individuals of the herd were the size of large dogs. They were indeed small deer, and so Bra told me, the same herd that has roamed the valley for years.

6) I have to admit, I was going to leave out this explanation. I assumed it followed from previous discussion of animal ki, but my arm was twisted. I have drawn the grass nearby with a few brown spots in ki that are not visible otherwise, though this is laziness on my behalf - there should be many, _many_ more. I am, of course, speaking of bugs and other usually reviled creepy crawlies.

* * *

 _My home in Satan City Age 797, with Goten (30) and Trunks (31) joined by Marron (26), the daughter of my father's closest friend and close friend to Goten and Trunks in her own right._

Gohan: _Are there any sides to ki people might not immediately think of?_  
Trunks: _So not flying then?_  
Goten: _Always the flying. Gonna be soooo many flat people when this book's released._  
Trunks: _Goten..._  
Goten: _What? It's true!_  
Gohan: _I'm adding disclaimers to the chapter._  
Trunks: _Good. I can swing you our lawyers if need be._  
Marron: _Spiders._  
Trunks: _Come again?_  
Marron: _Answer to the actual question. Spiders. Finding spiders._  
Goten: _Oh, here we go._  
Gohan: _Ah, I'll be covering ki-sense early._  
Marron: _Okay but that'll be about people and birds and lions and-_  
Trunks: _Lions?!_  
Marron: _-Yeah cool animals - or cute dogs or something - no one ever talks about the bugs-_  
Goten: _(laughing)_  
Marron: _-stop laughing you reprobate this is your fault!_  
Gohan: _I think I know where you're going with this but for the camera can you explain?_  
Marron: _Your_ delightful _brother - I told you to stop - when we were little but he was old enough to know better, I was terrified of_ _spiders. Scream-the-house-down-terrified._  
Trunks: _You weren't_ that _bad._  
Marron: _I had nightmares! When I was just learning how to read ki, he thought it would be hilarious to play a game to test me._  
Goten: _I was helping!_  
Marron: _The game involved him finding random animals and getting me to guess what they were. Lizards, frogs, mice, all of that. I can deal with that._  
Goten: _In my defence you were enjoying yourself - you said it was really fun._  
Marron: _I don't care what you_ claim _I said! The point is, the last animal he got me was really tricky, and I spent ages feeling it out just, what the hell is that? Its ki was so sharp and mechanical, silent? Gaahhhh I'm creeping myself out just thinking-_  
Trunks: _What was it Mar, what was it? Tell the nice people-_  
Marron: _A TARANTULA._  
[[Goten and Trunks both laugh]]  
Marron: _You were tormenting a five-year-old! It's nothing to be proud of and that's not even the end of it. If at any point they both decided I was irritating them by merely existing they'd shout-_  
Goten: _FIVE!_  
Trunks: _Six?_  
Goten: _Oh yeah, SIX!_  
Marron: _Oh my god you asses- they'd shout The Number._  
Gohan: _And that number is?_  
Marron: _The number of spiders in the room. That freaking childhood trauma seared the ki signature of a spider into my brain to the point I can count them within moments of entering a room. They conditioned me to do it. And it is six. I hate you both so much and I._ Hate. _Spiders._

* * *

For those like Marron who have a... strong dislike... of spiders and such, sensing ki will confirm your worst fears. Sometimes ignorance is truly bliss. I don't remember learning to sense ki, the realisation of being able to sense scary things coming slowly or not registering within me enough to remember. The experience clearly stayed with Marron. For me the world has always looked like this (and just to confirm the old adage, 'you're never more than six feet away from a rat in a city' is near-enough true). An ant nest or beehive seems like a large fuzzy cluster of busy ki rather than any individuals particularly standing out. In other cases though if you are truly quiet and on alert, you can sense the movement and blind intention of bugs. Predators like spiders do have the same sharp purpose as other carnivorous animals, but their ki is simple in the impression it leaves. I don't find spider ki particularly intimidating and I think that is Marron's stark fear of them colouring her sense subconsciously. If you have a fear of any animal and especially a fear of bugs, I recommend spending a lot of time on this aspect of ki-sensing as you develop your technique. If your entire attention is taken up finding bugs around you to be fearful of and flinching at every movement you'll never progress. Still, this apprehension can be controlled and never bothers Marron in situations that require her full attention.

7) The fuzzy nature of ant nests is true of human cities, although human individuality is detectable. Central City itself is not visible from The Spot being some four hundred miles away. Nevertheless, it is still perfectly detectable and the subtle effect of the city can be sensed all across the globe. I've exaggerated the brightness a little, the combined aura of all the inhabitants being extremely faint at the distances I've painted it to. I've also included some of the turbulent structure detectable within ki. Ki in aura like this is not affected by the wind, the ki only very rarely interacting with the physical world around it. It is the intent a ki-user gives ki that will allow an interaction, but more in later chapters. The ki from the city therefore extends not as smoke blowing in the wind nor as a dome but as fat disk, extending equally upward into the atmosphere and downward into the earth, tapering off as it travels away from the city. There are denser regions as the ki swirls, pulled together not by the wind but more of its own meandering. The view of ki is not stopped by rocks on the surface either, impeded only by the ki of the plants on the hill close to me. As an aside, whilst ki sense is an enhancement to other senses, travelling using ki-sense alone in a completely dead local environment would be unwise. Without any ki signatures registering you will smack into inanimate objects. This is the reason we try to fight in remote areas if possible. We try to minimise loss of any form of life in this way yes, but in truth we want to have an unobstructed view of our opponent's ki.

8) From The Spot, West city is near 5,000km away, a fair distance. I've coloured the ki differently to represent the difference in feel of West City's ki. The contrast wouldn't be that stark to appear as a different species, but just to make it clearer. If anyone has visited both cities you'd find their reputation precedes them - West is on average far more brash and lively than that of the quiet, cultured and sophisticated Central. Their unique nature is reflected in the feelings of their ki and even in the turbulence - West city's ki is, on average at least, more erratic. The ki of the city is still detectable and strong even at a distance (the population being larger by a factor of three than Central) but from my vantage point doesn't appear to extend as high in the atmosphere. In reality the ki is forming the same fat disc as Central City, but it appears sunk into the ground due to the curvature of the Earth. Trace the shape back to the centre of the ki impression and you will find ground-level in West City. The true lack of impedance caused by the non-living landscape means no matter where I am on Earth I can see these cities.

These large population centres then make navigation around the globe extremely simple for ki-users. I doubt any part of the planet is unfamiliar to me now, from high up enough at least, but I can always find my way home by triangulating the main cities and setting a course. Having a constant sense of the near-spherical nature of the planet is useful but somewhat strange, and can cause trouble.

I taught my wife Videl how to use and sense ki when we were sixteen. She took to the skill surprisingly quickly, though it was a number of years before her acuity in ki-sense grew consciously. A few days before our wedding I visited Videl's home to find her distracted, restless. She got worse and worse throughout the day, eventually settling on the couch stock-still, only flinching. Videl denied anything was wrong, saying it was nothing serious, and of course my paranoia feared the worst. She must have cold feet but was unable to tell me. I asked her father, Mr Satan, if he knew anything was wrong which started him panicking... This culminating in him drinking to steady his nerves, me compulsively drinking coffee, and the start of a joint idea to write a letter showing that I understood her decision. This morphed from a letter into a speech (the letter rendered unreadable by the caffeine-induced shaking of my hand) which I regaled to her at speed over dinner, Mr Satan interjecting sagely when I fumbled my lines. She stopped me halfway through (I suspect she was patient for as long as she could bear and thought I was near the end) asking where I had got the baffling idea she didn't want to marry me from. After I stammered a weak explanation she laughed - not unkindly - then admitted she should have been honest but was embarrassed.

After a confused description of her own we worked out she was having side-effects of ki sensing. It was severe vertigo induced by our friends Trunks and his father Vegeta in West City on the other side of the planet. She had always been able to vaguely sense our friends in West City, but this was the first time she'd been able to appreciate the distance. She felt every metre of that twelve thousand kilometres as though she was dangling helplessly over a bore-shaft through the centre of the Earth. It took Videl a week or so to overcome the sensation, it coming in waves. Though thankfully on the day of our wedding our friends were with us and so the vertigo lifted for a time!

9) It is not just Earth's population centres that can be useful to navigate by. Outside the Earth's atmosphere one can use stars with your eyes and other planets to orient yourself. I've highlighted planet New Namek here. I'll admit the planet wasn't in this direction when I was painting, this image painted in June and New Namek rising in daylight hours in the northern Autumn months instead. I hope you'll forgive inaccuracy for the the point I wish to illustrate. As one's ki-sense develops, sensitivity to intensity appears first before the ability to pinpoint position, then depth. With practise then, the faint glow in the sky of other planets will start to nag at your senses. At first it will feel like a blip in the atmosphere, maybe the weather. It's only when your ability to resolve the ki down to a blurry point will you resolve the planet along with it. Your ki-sense is not limited by the power of the eye. I'm mildly farsighted but not that farsighted! Looking above at the planet I am able to resolve the townships on New Namek itself in ki. If I was looking for someone I knew well I may be able to lock onto them. Those with the greatest abilities could detect - and crucially pinpoint - a spider twitch from the other side of the Universe. I'm sure one day that will be Marron readying for a crusade against them. You may expect the underlying ki of Namekians to be distinctively different to Earthlings, they are alien after all. And that is true to an extent. Although, there are far more similarities than differences, reflecting both species' high socialisation and capacity to manipulate ki.

10) My final label you may expect, since I've been approximately moving from faintest to brightest, would be the largest source of ki in the scene. And at that particular moment you'd be correct. The blue ki signature is extremely bright and the same colour as New Namek for good reason. It is the ki signature of Piccolo, my kidnapper and first official teacher. Piccolo is not hidden in the grass here with the deer, but at Yunzebitto Heights in the North of the planet. We're viewing his ki signature right through the Earth. At the time I drew this he was training and his energy output was over a hundred times that of the entirety of New Namek. Namekians have retained their ki sense over the years and are on average many times stronger than a Earthling, however sadly there are only a few hundred Namekians left in the Universe. Piccolo's strength is impressive, his what we call 'power level' is elevated here, although even when not training his lower 'base' power level is still easily detectable for me. It was the strong power levels of Trunks and Vegeta that induced Videl's vertigo. We shall cover the raising and lowering of ki intensity in the next chapter.

Because of their elevated intensity I am constantly attending to the ki signatures of friends and family subconsciously. I always noticed whenever my father left the planet, or can detect the moment Pan suppresses her power ready to try and sneak up on me (I won't know when she was planning to ambush me or from where, but I'll be as ready as I can)! There is very little privacy amongst advanced ki-users, sadly. The ability to track and be tracked, even when unintended, is a fact of life for us and one of well-argued downsides of publishing this book. Imagine knowing from six hundred miles away your little brother is sneaking off to the city at night... and not phoning your mother like you promised you would? Sorry Mom, I lied. We are all co-conspirators of the worst kind.

So far I have spoken only of ki. The last of the labelled ki signatures in particular necessitates now making a distinction between different types of ki. From points 1-8 (and mostly 9) I was speaking of a type of ki known as 'genki'. This is ki generated from the body alone. Genki is literally 'life energy' itself. So far I have only discussed ki as life energy, so what's different between genki and other types? Most Earth-based ki-users never progressed beyond using their own body's ki, their genki, to marginally bolster their strength, and ki-sensing isn't dependent on the amount of ki one has. Thus ki _was_ genki and no distinction was ever made. Only the most advanced users were able to harness greater strength beyond what would make sense from that great law of physics, "conservation of energy". It's only as we progress to modern day and power-levels have grown considerably that a distinction between the ability to _use_ one's genki and the ability to _amplify_ one's genki was necessary. This amplification (truthfully conversion from genki into another form) is a skill to develop and a very important one to maintain.

Confusingly, my friends and family never traditionally had a specific name for this converted ki, using 'ki' for both types and referring to genki when context wasn't sufficient. It is only recently that, from a fortuitous combination of attempting to teach Pan and Bra in a structured manner, Goten, Trunks and Gotenks needing to record notes for themselves and this research that precise terminology even begun to appear. Now if a specific term is needed we use "banoki" or "field ki" for the extra energy that breaks the laws of physics. The properties of field ki and genki do differ, which I will explain, along with the choice of the word "ba/field", towards the end of the chapter.

The kids (or 'kids' - gosh, Bra is the youngest and twenty-four years old now) have their own language and I've borrowed nearly all of their terminology for this textbook. I claimed it was so I could keep abreast of how Pan is training her students to support her, though in reality it was so I could keep up with what in the name Pan was _talking_ about. Joining the kids on sorties can leave you lagging as they work as a terrifying unit, throwing around jargon-filled updates and commands that leave you dizzy. The increased terminology, although less accessible, allows for subtle distinctions to be made between techniques and more nuanced discussion than I had growing up. I was fortunate enough that Videl was an extremely gifted martial artist before I taught her how to use ki, and even then I taught her all backwards (rather dangerously teaching her to fly first). Now Pan has shown she can train novices extremely efficiently. "It's all about the grammar and vocab," she sings to students on their first session as she passes out notebooks and pens, far from the mystical adventure they were expecting.

You may want to start taking notes, too. We're going to learn some science next.


	4. 1-3 Flows and Genki's Innate Use

_**1.3 Flows and Genki's Innate Use**_

* * *

We've seen the world at large through the lens of genki; demonstrating how all life has genki in different strengths and signatures, and genki itself appears not to interact with the world around it. How to see the world yourself in this manner will be covered in the next chapter, but for the moment we will continue to focus on the nature of genki. To do so I'll be using this sketch of my daughter Pan and a rather reluctant assistant. Bunny is a "wild" rabbit from the Capsule Corporation grounds that we are very sure has ancestors that include a pair of rabbits that escaped from Capsule Corp's atrium many years ago (the colouration gives him away). The sketch is nowhere near as good as Pan's in the preface of course, but I hope it will suffice for our demonstration.

[ Figure 1 ]

[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/168869342382/1point3#one ]

 _Pan and Bunny in the visible and Pan and Bunny in ki. Their unique ki signatures are represented with different colours._

The second image is the same but in ki. Over the next few sections I'll be breaking this down into its components. For now, let's focus on the overview. Genki appears to exist everywhere throughout the body, creating a silhouette of both Pan and Bunny. The transparent nature of genki means that where a life form is thicker - Pan's thigh compared to arms for example, the ki signature appears denser as we "look" through it. Genki also appears denser within the torso, in part due to this thickness but also due to a greater concentration of genki in general. Pan's aura is present here, too, as genki leaving her body and tapering outward. Pan's natural ability and intensive training in ki-use has increased her base power, her resting energy, somewhat higher than non-ki users by a factor of a few hundred or so, and her aura extending outward four or five times further naturally than other people's. I asked her to suppress her power here to mimic a non-ki user. This is roughly how your own genki would appear.

You'll notice Pan's torso is especially bright with ki, with other colours coming into play, indicating the increased density of genki. This is not coincidental. Genki is generated in the body's centre and approximately radiates away, the density falling faster than an inverse square. What and exactly where this centre is anchored remains a mystery. It cannot be attributed to any organ in particular. The fuzzy shape of the centre is only directly detectable by its owner, only the impression of genki outside the centre is. From here it appears Pan's centre sits in the lower half of her torso (as do most people's) and the increased density appears to flow up the chest and into the head.

Why the torso? There are two things that differentiate the human body from genki-less rocks. The first is flow. The body is full of flow. Blood flows around the body pumped by the heart in a circulatory fashion. The lymphatic system in part removes toxins from tissue. The digestive system breaks down food and passes nutrients to the blood. We also breathe, allowing oxygen to be brought into and carbon dioxide to pass out of the blood. Breath and ki therefore were were traditionally linked for good reason. It's not breath that directly drives the creation of genki within the body, but breath is just one of the flows that genki governs. Genki has its own meandering circulation around the body but it does broadly map onto these physical flows. The density of genki in the torso then reflects where the processing of many of these flows take place, and that is the most advantageous place for genki to be generated.

[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/168869342382/1point3#two ]

 _A rough representation of the flows within blood, the lymphatic system, breath and the alimentary canal within the upper body._

A separate philosophy of energy flow around the body exists that appears to follow this image, the concept of chakra. These are centres of spiritual energy management within the body that appear to start at the base of the spine and extend up through to the crown of the head. They represent different needs and emotions in the body, and physical illness and emotional distress play off each other through these chakra. It's true that emotions will register in different parts of the body. Anxiety manifests as an upturned stomach, embarrassment with a flushed face. And genki does seem to follow the centre of the body up through to the head where these chakra would be located. In truth, genki is more following blood flow to the head and is not governed in a number of well-defined different centres. Still, as we shall see, moving genki around the body is important and can trigger different effects, some of which map well onto the idea of chakra activation, thus this philosophy could be a useful visualisation tool.

Not all flow in the world has genki - wind and water does not intrinsically carry it. What then, is particular about the flows of life? It is the complex interplay of these systems relying on the correct functioning of this flow that necessitates the existence of genki.

For a skin cell in your fingertip to function it requires a number of systems to be in perfect balance. There must be the correct supply of oxygen from the breath and glucose from food transported by blood. The cell needs to dispose of waste like carbon dioxide and water generated in the respiration process. Other molecules like proteins are needed to replace damaged parts of the cell. Cells that die, or viruses and bacteria nearby to this skin cell need to be identified and removed. The pH, the measure of acidity or alkalinity in the cell, needs to be maintained. The cell's temperature needs to be in a narrow range, too. The body's ability to seek this equilibrium is known as "homeostasis".

It is no mean feat for the body to maintain homeostatic equilibrium. During my PhD I was able to formulate a model for a number of these processes. Whilst I will spare you the mathematical details I shall broadly explain the concepts behind these models. They require the body to measure it's current state - let's say temperature - then have an ideal temperature it is trying to maintain.

A measurement means nothing without an uncertainty attached. You need to know both the quantity of something and the precision of your measurement for it to have any meaning. In the case of taking your temperature with a thermometer, you can record the temperature but unless you know how good your thermometer is it is useless. Say for example I know normal body temperature is 37.0C and a fever is a temperature of above 37.5C. I'm not feeling well so I take my temperature and the thermometer says 40C. Am I sick? You may say yes, after all, 40C much higher than 37.5C. But we haven't considered the accuracy of the thermometer yet. A standard thermometer has an accuracy of plus/minus 0.1C. If I was using this thermometer then yes I am very sick indeed and should probably go to the hospital!

But what if I told you I'd made the thermometer myself very badly and its accuracy was rounded to the nearest 10C? That means my temperature could be anywhere between 35C and 45C. With that knowledge then, we don't have enough information to determine whether I have a fever or not or whether I should go to the hospital.

The body is constantly performing measurements on itself to determine its current temperature. The body also knows that its own internal thermometer has a precision associated with it. The body also has an ideal temperature it needs to be at to operate efficiently and a range of acceptable values. For each measurement then the body needs to assess whether its temperature has moved outside of the acceptable range and, if so, what action to take action to remedy that. How much action the body takes and how drastic that is is determined by how far away these two measurements are from each other.

There's a set of mathematical formulae that govern this process of observation, comparison to expectation and updating. It's called _Bayesian statistics_ and there are plenty of processes in the body that we can explain using this branch of probability theory. Let's run through an example of how this updating works and, despite the odd name and terminology, it's just a mathematician's convoluted way of describing common sense.

Let's say you have a belief. An apt example to pick given the subject matter would be "people can't fly". Now, your belief has a value (the statement "people can't fly") and it has an associated precision - in this case a high precision. That is, you are really, _really_ sure people can't fly. This belief is known as your _prior belief_ , or just _the prior_. It is what you knew before a new observation.

[ Figure 3 ]

[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/168869342382/1point3#three ]

Now, you go into the bookstore and find this book, a book saying people can learn to fly. This is your observation, your new data to take into account. No observation is complete without an associated precision, so what is it? Well, that's up to you to decide, but in this case if the book just says "people can fly" with very little evidence, I'd forgive you for saying this observation had a low precision. The book might be right, but it probably isn't.

How likely is this book's statement to be true? You need to compare your prior and the observation and if you think the new information is likely to be correct your beliefs will change a lot. If it's not likely to be correct you beliefs will only change a little. This is called _updating your prior_. In this case you don't think the book's statement is likely so your prior does not move much. But reading this book, whilst you didn't believe people could fly and still don't, has planted a seed of doubt. You didn't put much stock in this claim, but it's still there, folded in with all the evidence that says people can't fly. And it affects the precision of your prior belief ever so much, the precision is ever so marginally lower (the curve in the figure is wider).

[ Figure 4 ]

[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/168869342382/1point3#four ]

What if I was to show you some harder evidence? Say, I came to your house and showed you I could fly. I'm expressing exactly the same point as before - "people can fly" - but now the evidence I'm presenting is a lot stronger. It is convincing, you think to yourself, but this could be special effects like in the Cell Games all those years ago. The precision you assign to this new observation "people can fly" is far higher than the one you assigned to the book. We've made an observation so we should update our beliefs. Let's compare to our current prior belief, "people can't fly". The precisions are similar now, so when combining them the new observation has a very strong effect when creating the new prior, the updated belief, and the new belief has a very low precision. In one fell swoop you've gone from "I definitely don't believe people can fly" to "I'm really not sure about anything anymore".

[ Figure 5 ]

[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/168869342382/1point3#five ]

I'm quite a tenacious person so I'll give it one more shot. Let's say I now take you out for a flight. Now you know it's really not a magic trick, people really can fly. Again it's the same observation "people can fly" but there is no doubt about it, this observation has a very high precision. And what do we do? We compare it to our prior again. Our prior has a very low precision because we weren't sure at all of the truth anymore. But this new evidence is so strong it pulls the updated prior to the point your belief has finally changed, with a high precision on "people can fly".

This constant updating is how we learn about the world around us. I have missed out one component though, and that is the element of surprise. When comparing your prior and new observations sometimes, like above, we find the new observations don't mesh with our current beliefs. We experience surprise at this - that is the actual science term, by the way! Life forms _hate_ surprise. We spend most of our time trying to minimise it. You might like the odd surprise in life like gifts or a good mystery book but surprise on a fundamental level we do not - we actively avoid dangerous situations for example.

One way to avoid surprise is to learn from new information, so next time you make the same observation you are a little less surprised. Above is the way I would hope our conversation would go, learning with each surprise, ending with you eventually believing me. The way I wouldn't want you to minimise surprise would be to attribute so little precision to a new observation (placing so much doubt on the new piece of information) it can be ignored. If you've ever tried to argue with a conspiracy theorist you'll know they will explain away any evidence you give them so they don't have to learn from it or change their beliefs. Oh, speaking of, the special effects at the Cell Games I mentioned earlier? Mr Satan did indeed lie. The Cell Games were all real. Our apologies for the deception, you deserve a fuller explanation which will be given later - although, how's the update to your "magic tricks at the Cell Games" prior coming along?

The last way to minimise surprise would be to change something about you or your environment so the observation didn't happen again. If you were surprised to see a dangerous lion, rather than ignoring it or just learning that lions are part of daily life now, you'd climb out of the zoo exhibit. In the case of this book you might put this book down so it doesn't challenge your preconceptions anymore. In terms of homeostasis, this last option is what the body does, changing part of the system to bring the next observation closer to the prior.

[ Figure 6 a,b ]

[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/168869342382/1point3#six ]

Back to the body maintaining temperature, let's reframe the idea in this prior/observation/surprise format. The body has a prior belief on the temperature it should be. That temperature has a very limited possible range, the prior has a very high precision. Now, when the body makes an observation, that observation also has as very high precision (it has to be otherwise the body wouldn't be able to act). When the new temperature differs greatly from the expected prior, the body experiences "surprise". The bigger the difference, the greater the surprise. It takes action. For a small hot surprise, maybe the body starts to sweat. For a large hot surprise, you'll drop the mug with boiling water. The body will keep taking action until it cannot tell whether the observed temperature is different from it's prior.

One can find chemical and hormonal triggers throughout the body as well as regions in the brain that enable these large scale processes to take place. Body temperature is regulated by an almond-sized region of the brain called the hypothalamus, for example. But there is another element to this that troubled me for years, however, and that was how the body remained in true synchronicity. Not only are these systems regulated at whole-body scales but at the cellular level, too. What maintains these prior beliefs, preventing them from drifting? What triggers responses where simple chemical reactions cannot explain the synchronicity?

It is not just immediate responses. The body is able to subconsciously compensate when it cannot reach true homeostasis - for example staving off becoming dangerously dehydrated by sweating too much. The ability to prioritise these systems is known allostasis. Even further, we can anticipate the future and prepare ourselves accordingly by putting on jumpers when we know outside will be cold, to automatically bracing for impact when we jump from a high place. What governs all this?

My answer to these questions is genki. Genki carries sometimes extremely complex information and subtle instruction around the body, including within the brain. This is known as the genki's _intent_. It is able to affect necessary change across the body, including preemptively modifying priors in anticipation of events. Therefore sentience, in particular the ability to plan for the future, is more than just the physical brain but encompasses genki, too.

Genki may be generated in the abdomen but its intent is still chosen with the brain's assistance. The vagus nerve, travelling from the brain all the way through the torso and branching out to the major organs, carries feedback to the brain about the body's homeostatic status and sends back commands. It is no accident that this nerve travels through the densest region of genki. Intent can propagate through genki instantaneously so a nerve is not necessary, but this shows all these systems developed simultaneously.

It's the ability for genki to carry subconscious intent, the intent to check the body's status and carry out the allostatic process that makes genki so important. Genki allows for higher level communication across the body and allows a measured response - whether that's explosively in a fight-or-flight situation, or slowly due to changes in hormones needed on a daily cycle. But that intent can be consciously manipulated - even completely hijacked - to produce the "superpowers" my family, friends and I appear to have.

Whilst there are physical systems in place that perform allostasis, genki is definitely necessary for the body. The body /can/ do without genki for a while but the body registers the lack of it very quickly, panicking without it in a manner akin to the experience of hypothermia. This rising panic is very obviously felt when suppressing ki output to zero. I have done no concrete experiments on how long the body can function without genki, to do so I feel would be unethical. However, my father, Son Goku, did on more than one occasion abuse his ki-use abilities beyond what was safe and ruined his control of ki for a time.

He developed Delayed Onset Ki Disorder and he made for an interesting case study. Whilst he was able to sense ki correctly, the ability to sense and control his own genki was completely out of kilter. He was unable to draw greater power correctly, reducing power-level. This extended somewhat to the subconscious, where genki was unable to control exactly the body's response to changes in status, and allostasis was thrown out of control. The subconscious symptoms were intermittent and a subtle effect for him thankfully, but further abuse would have rendered this problem permanent and even possibly killed him if he was unable to regain control of allostasis. At times he even developed what I could only call hot and cold flushes as his body did not respond correctly to observations of temperature. His appetite even dropped in response, not needing to eat to replace the genki his body wasn't using to maintain homeostasis. Rest fixed the issue, the genki system being far more resilient than other systems within the body, taking a few days to a week to recover. But it was a strong warning sign not to push ki-use beyond what his body was capable of coping with and he learnt… eventually.

Genki then exists within all areas of the body. It travels along the naturally existing flows within the body including the flow we have direct conscious control over, the breath, hence the breath's importance in genki manipulation. Genki has an evolutionary function, primarily to maintain homeostasis. This is keeping the environment within the body at optimal levels for functioning, for example temperature, acidity and oxygen levels. The body has what is known as a prior on these values, an idealised optimum value and an allowed range. When the measurement of those values within the body differ greatly to this prior, the so-called surprise experienced causes the body to respond to correct this. This correction is mediated through genki. Genki is also able to balance and prioritise multiple systems under homeostatic control, known as allostasis, and it can forward-plan, anticipating future needs and preparing the body. Genki therefore is entwined with sentience. Without genki, homeostasis and the ability to forward plan would eventually break down, causing internal processes to fall out of balance across the body. Genki's ability to carry information and commands - intent - is what makes genki so potent and useful for us beyond maintaining homeostasis.

Still with me? Don't fret, one doesn't need to understand the ins-and-outs of genki to manipulate it, but it does help. I will now be breaking down the pictures above into their components, discussing centres as generators of ki, then the use of aura.


	5. 1-4 Centres

_**1.4 - Centres**_

* * *

We've taken some time to explore the use of genki to the body. Whilst for the dedicated student I'd hope eventually understanding all of ki would be valuable, appreciating that ki effectively carries a message around the body will suffice for now.

Let's go back to the scene of Pan and Bunny. The impression ki leaves on the senses is a holistic one, genki alone not differentiating between inside and outside the body. Based on my own experience though I'll break the image down into its components. Let's discuss the source of ki.

[ Figure 1 ]

[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/169038902457/1point4#one ]

 _The density of ki within Pan and Bunny, highlighting their ki-centres._

I've subtracted the aura from the image to be clearer. Internally genki is densest in regions of flow and areas that govern it, particularly the torso and to some extent the head. The densest region, represented as a richness in ki-sense, is the centre, the source, in the lower part of the torso. Both Bunny and Pan have one. It can be thought of genki radiating out from a central point. In the same way a fountain viewed from above has water flowing from the centre from seemingly nowhere (the water pipe hidden in the third spatial dimension), so your genki appears to flow from an invisible pipe outwards in all three dimensions. With enough time studying the water leaving the fountain, one can infer something about the flow-rate of water, the pipe size from the water pressure and how large the reservoir of water is that serves the fountain. It's the same with the centre - by understanding the dynamics of the genki leaving it one can infer an effective spherical size of the reservoir, flow rate and density. To think of the centre having a size, a capacity, and not having a definitive edge in reality isn't contradictory in this sense. Thankfully, you personally can have some sense of these hidden parameters of your own centre without performing the mathematics, just no one else's.

[ Figure 2 ]

[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/169038902457/1point4#two ]

 _Goten and the so-named Mr Paozusaurus. His centre is larger than Goten's, but unaffected by his missing tail. I confess I am the reason he is missing his tail; how Goten managed to be on friendly terms with him I'll never know._

As you may be able to tell from the images of both Pan and Bunny, and Goten and Mr Paozusaurus, there is a correlation between a being's size and the size of the centre. On average a larger animal will have a larger power level. It makes evolutionary sense that the more body mass an animal has the more genki it will need to monitor homeostasis. For reasons I'll expand upon in a later section, the density of ki remains roughly consistent between subspecies. This means an animal twice the size of a family member will have twice the power level. This extends to zoomorphic people having centre sizes between their anthropoid and other animal species. There are techniques that are able to change the size of the body and centre itself. A doubling in height directly leads to a doubling in energy output increase, too. In addition there are many factors that influence base power level other than the size of the centre, which clouds the otherwise tight correlation.

Here begins the first exercise. You are going to find your centre - after some preliminary preparations, of course. Don't panic if you cannot do this straight away. Many people won't be able to for a while, it does take practice. I've positioned this early in the textbook to whet your appetite for the more practical elements to come later and to give you a chance to practice whilst reading the next few sections.

Finding and understanding your exact centre is not something others can help with, either. I can sense where your centre may be given the density of ki within your body, but I am unable to give you direction, I cannot feel your centre in the same way you can. Still, there are ways to give guidance.

* * *

 _Capsule Corp Age 798, with my father, Goku (62) and Trunks and Bra's father Vegeta (66) discussing how to find your centre. My Dad and Vegeta were universally revered friendly rivals._

Goku: _It's feelin' hungry. But the other side of your belly button._

Vegeta: _That's absurd. The centre matches the centre of gravity._

Goku: _Vegeta, that's not true!_

Vegeta: _It's a more precise explanation than yours._

Goku: _No because–_

Vegeta: _I'm not arguing._

Goku: _–what if you bend over?_

Vegeta: _…Go on?_

Goku: _Well, if I lean –_

Vegeta: _Get off!_

Goku: _–where does your balance go? Outside your body, right?_

Vegeta: …

Goku: _But I'm still hungry in the same place. See?_

Vegeta: _Fine. When standing with_ good posture _, which you are_ obviously _incapable of, the centre of ki near-matches the centre of gravity. Otherwise, follow what nonsense you wish._

* * *

The first step to sensing your centre is maintaining correct posture. Standing is easiest, for me at least - I do most of my centring whilst upright in battle. It's a bad day indeed if I'm centring on the ground.

Not everyone will have the ability to follow the instructions in this guide to the letter due to personal circumstance and be reassured, that is fine. Even many of the techniques that come later, although seeming to need physical precision in the exercise, are constantly adapted for the situation in sparring. Modifying to your ability is the most important part - otherwise you will make no progress trying the impossible. All I can ask is you try your best and do not over-exert yourself. The guide is designed for a standard adult anthropoid body shape purely because that's my body type. Again feel free to adapt for zoomorphic body shapes.

Let's start from the ground up. Stand feet shoulder-width apart, toes facing forward, knees straight but not locked. This is to maintain balance. With that in mind then, keep your weight equally distributed across both left and right feet. We commonly lean on one foot when standing though this will be off-putting when searching for our centre. As Vegeta noted with correct posture your ki-centre and centre of gravity greatly overlap, maintaining the line of symmetry in your balance then will help you locate it. This equal distribution of weight also extends forwards and backwards. Your weight should be spread across the balls and heels of your feet, too - lifting your heels or toes should be difficult and cause you to move in both cases.

Draw in the base of the spine towards your front, ("tucking in your tail") and draw your navel towards your spine engaging (though not solidifying) your core muscles. If you find yourself with lower back-ache often when standing and have a sizeable gap between your thighs you may have anterior pelvic tilt. You'll find drawing in your navel to be difficult and this will engage core muscles you didn't know you had, but this tilt can be corrected over time.

Your shoulders should be relaxed - the tendency nowadays is to roll them forwards so pinch your shoulder blades together then release them to position them correctly. Do not lock them attempting to make your back straight as that requires muscle tension to maintain. We carry a lot of tension in our back and neck throughout the day, so, give your shoulders a shake if you need to and rock your head to loosen your neck to help. After positioning, your palms should naturally face your mid-thigh, thumbs forward.

Remember to raise your head - your head is a heavy object and the weight needs to be above the spine to reduce strain on the neck. You may need to draw your chin back a little, too, drawing your head back may engage your core muscles a little more.

[ Figure 3 ]

[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/169038902457/1point4#three ]

 _Standing upright and in a shallow horse stance_

Double-check the weight distribution across your feet. The base of your neck, hip, knee and heel should all be in alignment. The back does not need to be ram-rod straight, just relaxed and balanced. It's a cliche but true; if you imagine a plumb-line extending along your spine and through the crown of the head into the sky, give that line a tug and it should help lift your posture. If your posture has been very poor then correct posture may be difficult for you, but despite the difficulty you should feel your chest is more open already.

A second standing position often taught in martial arts is the horse stance - so-called as it mimics the position when horse-riding. It is a rooted stance that lowers your centre of gravity, bringing your ki-centre with it, and therefore greatly increases your stability. In this case stand feet directly forward and twice shoulder-width apart. Bend the knees enough to maintain a straight back without falling off-balance. To the casual eye this may look like a squat but it is not - in a squat the knees track over the top of the feet, that is not necessarily the case in horse stance. Your knees can be bent as much as you like, but a deep stance performed correctly will be more stable. The feet traditionally point forward, although can point out a good forty-five degrees for comfort. Again the end goal is to find your centre rather than meticulously follow a form, though if you join a school they will have their own requirements for horse stance. Many of the techniques taught later naturally begin in this position so you may wish in particular to start practising finding your centre in this stance too.

You do not need to stand to locate your centre. Find a chair in which you can sit comfortably, lower back against the chair back for support, the edge of the chair away from the back of the knees. Your feet should be flat on the floor and the hips marginally higher than the knees if the chair allows it. Place your hands in your lap, on your thighs or resting on the chair by your thighs; somewhere they will not pull the shoulders forward. Engage the core, neck and the back in a similar way to standing, facing forwards, head upright.

[ Figure 4 ]

[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/169038902457/1point4#four ]

Without a chair one can sit on the floor. In my part of the world sitting in _seiza_ is popular, and is similar to the _vajrasana_ pose in central regions. That is, kneeling with heels directly under the buttocks, tops of the feet flat on the floor, big toes touching or overlapping. The back and head is relaxed but upright. Traditionally women keep their knees together and men part them, but I'll risk the eyebrow raises by stating comfort over conformity is more important for this exercise. Again, the hands can be rested in the lap, on the thighs or on the floor. If this is new for you you may experience pins and needles, in which case stop for a while. Seiza is not an overly comfortable position and there is evidence to suggest sitting in this pose, as with all sitting styles, for a long time can be damaging. It is however traditionally taught within martial art schools and so you may encounter it formally should you wish to pursue a discipline.

[ Figure 5 ]

[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/169038902457/1point4#five ]

Sitting cross-legged is more popular in the west. The buttocks are on the ground, thighs forward and angled to the sides with the knees bent, ankles either on top of each other or calves crossing with the ankle under the opposite thigh. The back is again upright and relaxed and head above the spine. Hands again can be anywhere comfortable, although some keep the elbows close to the torso, forearms along thighs with palms facing up as an open pose. I keep my hands resting one on top of the other in my lap. A variant, lotus position, sees the ankle on top of the thighs rather than underneath, and is a fantastic test of flexibility.

Although usually more comfortable than seiza, for many pins and needles can still arise quite quickly, and truthfully the sitting position one should default to is a matter of personal preference. I once had to sit for twenty hours straight for a ritual and I'm very glad I opted out of seiza, but that's just me.

It's one thing to have good posture when concentrating on form, another to maintain it throughout the day. The best way to track your progress is to enlist help. Relax into good posture and ask a good friend to apply tape along your spine to just past the nape of your neck. Then go about your day. Any time we bend the head forward we're moving the whole weight of the head from balancing over the spine to dangling precariously over the chest, with the neck and back muscles tensing to compensate. The tugging this causes on the tape will remind you to correct your posture. It is surprising how often we slouch.

Growing up the kids, being able to use ki from a young age, never focussed on posture to find their centre. As such they would forget the importance of an open chest in drawing greater strength. My mother, Chichi, taught us posture through her early morning tai-chi routines to encourage us to sit and stand correctly throughout the day. This training was augmented by pokes in the back with her cooking chopsticks if we passed through the kitchen walking badly. Dad was not spared her wrath, either. As Goten got older my sweet brother became a natural slouch and usually received the brunt of the jabbing. He knows fifty ways to sit on a chair, none of which are remotely correct, though he has developed the most peculiar ability to sit correctly when and only when Mom is around. Mom's training not working entirely as intended, then.

I know for a fact Trunks and Bra had it worse under Vegeta's watchful eye. To this day Mom corrects the family whenever we're slouching; Vegeta would, for lack of a better word, _destroy_ his children. Punishment varied from knocking them to the floor should they lean on one leg, to grabbing the forehead and holding their head back if he caught them slouching at a keyboard (Goten, a more than frequent visitor, had his head tied to the back of a chair once as a correctional measure. I have the photos still). Arguably the worst was Vegeta snatching and confiscating their cell phones should they so much as nod their chin more than a few degrees. If you keep up with celebrity news you may have seen a series of photos published a few years ago of Trunks holding his cell phone high when out in public? I know the collage gained traction online. He wasn't taking bizarre photos or needing better glasses, he just knew better than to slouch whilst texting. And you should too.

Whichever posture you take, to begin to sense your centre you need to learn how to breathe correctly. Having a steady breath to work with will calm genki flow, allowing you to ignore the now suppressed turbulence and dig down to the source of your genki.

Place one hand on the upper chest, the other on the stomach. Breathe normally for a moment. What hand raises first, the chest or stomach? For most of us it is the upper chest that raises first. We don't need an entire lungful of oxygen for each breath and our time mostly sitting as part of modern life encourages this type of shallow breathing, known as _clavicular breathing_. This is a habit we must break to gain any mileage from ki. Even if you decide not to pursue the use of ki, this breathing is of benefit and so I would encourage you to learn to breathe deeper. If your lower hand rose first, congratulations - feel free to read this rest of this section with a smug grin.

Breathing involves the lungs yes, but they're passive balloons to fill. It is the ribcage expanding and the muscle below the lungs, the diaphragm, pulling downwards that causes the lungs to expand and draw in air. With clavicular breathing the ribcage expands with the help of the intercostal muscles between the ribs, and the shoulders and the clavicles (collar bones) move upwards. The ribs appear to expand outward. With a large clavicular breath the stomach seems to shrink in towards the spine. Whilst called shallow breathing the breath isn't necessarily small, the name is due to the breath appearing to only sit in the top part of the chest. Typically though the volume of air inhaled is smaller with clavicular breathing.

To get the fullest breath and engage with your centre you need to switch to _diaphragmatic breathing_ , deep breathing. Lace your fingers and place them on your stomach, over or just below your navel. Take a standard clavicular breath in through the nose and note how your stomach barely moves. On the exhale through the mouth, note how long you can breathe out, as a measure of the volume of air you were able to breathe. On your next breath in, push out your stomach as far as you can, like inflating a balloon. Continue the breath, rolling through the stomach, being careful not to pull on the shoulders. When exhaling again notice the volume of air you have exhaled. For some people there will be a large difference, others not so much. Either way, the effort required to breathe deeply in a clavicular manner is much greater. Do you see how easy it is to get tired and lazy with this kind of shallow breath? Whilst we don't need full breaths much of the time (I know I'm not fully exerting myself writing this for example) clavicular breathing is a poor habit, and one we can thankfully break.

Diaphragmatic breath is sometimes called a belly breath. Air does not reach into your stomach with these breaths. It's the diaphragm displacing the organs in your abdomen that causes the stomach to rise. Still, whilst air isn't leaving the lungs in the chest, the simple flowing movement of the diaphragm is reaching down into your centre and that's the flow we want to encourage and activate. It's a subtle distinction between the breath of air and the breath of the body but an important one nonetheless. By using the breath, the one flow we have very direct control over to reach down to our centre, we are able to start sensing our centre and then move to manipulating it.

* * *

 _My family home in Satan City, Age 800 with Pan (21) discussing both her smaller, local informal ki-school and the online teaching course she inherited from her Grandfather Mr Satan, the Pan Fighting Network._

Gohan: _How many times have you taught finding your centre now?_

Pan: _Uh good question. Thirty or so students in total? Properly I mean, otherwise thousands on the Fighting Network._

Gohan: _You're not teaching correctly online?_

Pan: _You want my rant?_

Gohan: _You got me._

Pan: _I've tried teaching centring fully online before; posture, breath, autoception, all of that, really I have. But the self-reflection needed is less important for some people I guess, they're on the PFN just for the moves. Most will tolerate learning posture and slower breathing but get vocally frustrated at the early focus on it and it drives me crazy. Nowadays I won't spend a lot of time on centring because so many people hate it, and we're not using ki knowingly anyway so it's technically not essential. I just give guidance for those who want to learn more, and surprise surprise those students do better. I mean, not being interested in breathing is fine – I shouldn't rag on my remote learners like this…_

Gohan: _So some students think it's a waste of time, even with the benefits?_

Pan: _Yeah, which it is for some as they'd never practice it anyway. But for the local students learning ki manipulation it's essential and we'll spend weeks on it if we have to. I've given one-on-one sessions before to help students catch up. Only had a few students leave._

Gohan: _What's the most effective way to teach centring then, for the book?_

Pan: _I… this is going to sound silly. I really want to say it's the standard meditation practice with breathing and pretty candles but…_

Gohan: _But…_

Pan: _I just tell people it's like feeling hungry, but on the other side of the belly button._

* * *

Pan's irritation with her remote students may seem a little unfair, though she's right, getting these basics second-nature before jumping into trying to fly will be far faster in the end, so I urge patience. My family and friends are a bizarre exception to the rule that it takes years of practice to master how to use ki. I suspect it is because they grew up surrounded by ki-users and so could run before they could walk (or in Pan's case, fly), and that has separate challenges. They and I still benefit from covering these basics from time-to-time, however. Still, let's give finding your centre, finally, a try.

Find a comfortable position with good posture. Close your eyes and start deep breathing. Closing your eyes allows your other senses to heighten to compensate and that includes your ki-sense. You want to be inhaling, holding, exhaling and holding for roughly the same amount of time, around five to ten seconds for each part of the breath. Don't force this timing, especially if you start feeling faint, but make the breaths longer than usual for you. When holding the breath it's an active hold - don't close the throat with the glottis (back of the tongue/throat) and sag - that builds pressure. Instead, keep the throat open. This motion of breath will reach down to your centre and, with the slower breath, calm turbulence.

Calming the mind will also help. I appreciate telling some people to "calm down and relax" isn't much of an instruction, however. We have two main ways to focus our attention, within our mind and outside of it, and the mind switches between the two. Sometimes when attempting to concentrate the mind will wander to worry or imagination. Mind-wandering happens for some more than others. Don't feel frustrated if you're a frequent mind-wanderer or easily distracted by external stimuli, when you notice just switch your attention back to your body and continue from where you left off. You will improve.

As my father taught you're searching for a feeling below the navel, a warm and taut sensation much like the first stages of hunger. The tightness is around the size of your fist, though the warm feeling dissipates outwards from there through your abdomen. It is not an uncomfortable or painful sensation (unlike hunger can be), if anything the tight pressure is comforting. Across the other senses it feels like a low buzz or soothing hum, far faster than the heartbeat. If you wish to visualise it, project a ball within that region and move it in your mind's eye until the position feels balanced. It should settle around your centre.

You are more likely to feel the effect of your centre on the inhale and transition to hold than the exhale. At this point genki is prompted to begin the process of monitoring the gaseous exchange within the lungs and throughout the body, moving away from the centre to do so. The warm sensation should move upwards slightly on the exhale, though don't expect to feel genki far from the centre on your first attempt. Try for five minutes or so, then successful or not, stop. Wait a while before trying again. It is easy to get frustrated trying something new, this is a sense you never knew you had, and so deliberately taking a break from exercising this new metaphorical muscle will save you the mental anguish of repeated failure.

When you do start sensing this dense region of genki try tracking the upwards component of genki movement on the exhale. It is on average a steady movement with a little wandering. How it feels is subjective but a quick poll returned "warm, buzzing, tingly, fluid, rousing, fizzing, and bubbling". I'm sure you'll find your own perfect descriptor in time.

Go back to the dense region of ki and focus down onto the centre of that tightness. Feel the ebb and flow, the rhythm of genki and use the familiarity you're gaining with that pattern to ignore it. What you do next exactly is up to you and your own visualisation techniques, though I lightly "touch" that tightness in my mind's eye. The disturbance caused by my attention effectively opens my centre to me. It causes a shift in my perception, from a formless tightness to a bubble brimming with potential genki. Whilst I outwardly project this mental bubble onto myself across my centre, I know others keep it within their mind's eye as a bubble or even a lidded box in a kind of parallel imagined world, suiting their own visualisation better. It's up to you. As you learn to manipulate genki, how full this reservoir is will change and I constantly have this check running on myself. No one else but me (and a few gifted individuals I've met) can see or manipulate this bubble, however, and the same is true of your centre.

I'll be steering away from practical demonstrations for a while to give you a chance to practice posture, breath and finding your centre. Next we'll be discussing the purpose of aura, and then branching into some of the underlying science that governs the rules and limitations of ki-use before we begin manipulating genki in earnest. Happy hunting!


	6. 1-5 Aura and Socialisation

_**1.5 - Aura and Socialisation**_

* * *

Back to Pan and Bunny. I've now redrawn the image without the internal map of genki, focussing only on the aura. As sentient lifeforms both Pan and Bunny have aura. We known genki is used by the body to regulate it's systems. Why then does the body produce extra and let it escape?

[ Figure 1 ]

[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/169265923392/1point5#one ]

This isn't a case of "just because". Evolution is a fickle beast. For a trait to become widespread it needs to either be advantageous to a lifeform, or at least be of neutral cost so the trait is idly passed down to offspring. It does take energy (a cost in terms of energy ultimately gained from food) to produce genki. So, wasted genki is wasted food. It stands to reason then the leaking genki _must_ serve a purpose.

The genki in the body can fall into a number of categories based on the intent, the purpose (or lack of) the genki is carrying. For now let's discuss two major groupings, active and passive. Active genki, genki carrying an intent to perform a very specific role, encompasses all the genki used in checking homeostatic equilibrium. If a message is being actively carried it cannot be changed and repurposed, only ignored or physically blocked depending on the intent. These are messages like, "measure temperature", "body temperature too low, take action", "pay attention to the threat straight ahead".

The second type is passive intent, and is crucial for aura. These are blank or partially blank slates of genki waiting to be assigned an active role. They are caught and used by cells to send messages in response to those homeostatic checks to allow the body to make decisions. The centre then needs to release a fraction of genki that has no assigned role and therefore no destination. The passive genki meanders around the body, and as genki is typically not stopped by solid objects, the genki leaves. This leaking is the aura.

The body can stop this passive aura leaving without converting it to active ki, effectively bouncing it back from the skin surface. Some passive genki can further be activated to shore up this bouncing of genki in what we call a guard. Creating a wall in this manner to isolate ki prevents a hostile person from manipulating your passive genki. This is not a high-level technique, in fact it is an automatic response triggered by emotion and perceived threat, and is even referred to as "putting your guard up" and "feeling defensive" in common parlance. Whilst ki-use has fallen out of public consciousness, the effects of ki itself have not been, the feeling passed down in emotive language like above.

This guarding is happening in the first picture of Pan and Bunny. Bunny is not comfortable in this situation. Rabbits do not like being held above the ground and so it's no surprise he would be reeling away from a stranger like Pan. His passive genki is not leaving his body, bounced back from the guard building up at and around his skin and rejecting Pan's. For advanced ki-users this guard can be built up to higher energy densities to reject more than genki; stopping bullets, fire, explosions… you name it. This rejection is an automatic response, but keeping a guard up when not feeling defensive is an advanced skill. At the highest level the ability can be modified and manipulated to learn "super strength."

Without an aura to directly detect the only ki-sense of a defensive person is the impact their genki makes on the ki field. Even at a standard level, this lack of aura can give off a sense of coldness and distance. My own handshake I've been told can come across robotic when I'm nervous - surprisingly often in academic circles. I suppose it's better weak and clammy, but still not ideal. Due to my own natural ki-strength forming an easily detectable guard, the difference between defensive and calm handshakes is readily apparent.

Touching a strong guard is an unyielding, metallic sensation. This touch usually causes your own genki to respond in defensive kind, the clashing of guards causing a fuzzed spark sensation like metal, (or if there's a severe dislike between the guard owners, foil on tooth). It feels cold because of that fuzzing but it is a subjective sense, there's no measurable change in temperature. For me, the person with the stronger guard, I feel a dulled sensation of touch, like wearing woollen gloves. These guards are not rigid barriers. They flow with the body (and when augmented with greater power extend beyond the body a short distance) and with a strong enough grip - or punch - the barrier can be warped. In addition two people with the same energy density of barrier will /not/ cancel out each other's guard (that is another skill entirely), but there are ways to get around a guard without dropping it.

Still, even with meandering passive genki, why would it be needed beyond the body and why so much? Why not keep just enough contained at all times? The answer is socialisation. Passive genki awaits instruction, and whilst it is most easily manipulated by the original owner of the genki (the programmed intent a product of that individuals mind or body) it can still easily be manipulated by others. This is akin to reading and writing in someone else's handwriting in their journal; the more alien the mind the harder the handwriting is to read and mimic, but thankfully most lifeforms' handwriting is legible.

This ability to set the intent of someone else's passive genki is the reason we feel comfortable dropping our wariness in places we're with friends (friend with a reputation for pranks aside). Sleeping in the open we would keep one eye on the world around us, never feeling fully rested come morning. With a friend around to share the watch we can fall asleep as though we were safe in our own bed. What's the difference? On the surface yes, we trust the person we're with to look out for us and to wake us should we be in danger. There is a second element to this however, and it involves that leaking passive genki.

When we are comfortable with each other, our genki recognises a friend and happily mingles. Genki will propagate and mix at any rate, but it's the difference in mixing between oil and water, and water and alcohol. What would have been fuzzy bubbles of genki will completely mix when people are comfortable with each other. The second picture of Pan and Bunny reflects this (a guess on my behalf, the rabbit was put back on terra firma rather quickly). Bunny's aura in particular can be seen leaking into Pan's, and likewise hers to his. This mixing is good news out in the wilderness with one watcher and the family group asleep. The genki still purposefully leaks from the sleepers, ready and awaiting instruction. The same with the watcher - they may be on guard themselves, but the aura of the sleeping group reaches them, surrounds them and effectively binds the watcher to the group.

When danger appears - not enough for the watcher to call out but enough to cause concern, the watcher's genki will increase its own defence. However the message is not restricted to just the watcher's genki - the signal to be on guard ripples back to the sleepers through that passive genki binding. It's not enough to rouse most people at first, though will begin the process of readying the body. It's when that first call goes out from the watcher, when danger is real, that genki moves faster than the sound of warning itself. Genki's warning registers in the brain fastest of all the senses, usually before the eardrums have even vibrated. This extra split-second of warning can mean the difference between life and death.

And so it is that aura play a role in administering an undercurrent of social interaction between us all. This is evolutionary advantage to have, even at an energy cost.

Consciously sensing aura outright is a skill but there is one circumstance where aura become obvious. We all have a bubble around us that we dislike people stepping into. This bubble is different sizes for different people; we are more comfortable standing closer to partners, friends and family than strangers. In cities and in some cultures it's customary to stand closer together when talking. This can cause social problems where one person is continually and subconsciously putting distance between themselves and another, with the other closing the gap, confusing both parties. One feeling someone is over familiar, the other feeling dismissed.

This complex layering of social distance is indeed governed by aura. There comes a point where a forced mixing of passive genki becomes uncomfortable, we sense too much of the other person for how friendly we are with them, specifically their ki particle pressure being too high. Note this isn't the same as their power level, just the number of particles leaving the centre at any one moment (otherwise no one would want to stand near me in the slightest). It is possible to change tolerances over time however, and city dwellers often have a higher tolerance to ki particle pressure than those from lower density population centres. There is one village on a small island east of Papaya Island that has a ki tolerance similar to a large city, but for reasons I shall explain in section 1.8.

As a ki-user, seeing these bubbles assert themselves and those links of genki people subconsciously make is a beautiful dance to watch. It's a more obvious signal than body language, from the wisps of ki joining and breaking as partners move through a room seemingly ignoring each other but keeping in close auratic contact, to watching an aura impinge on another in hope of reciprocation, fading back in disappointment, it's easy to be a mind reader when observing aura.

That's not to say ki-users are more in tune with their emotions. It's true on average they'll be more empathetic as they can more readily see another's emotion through the movement of aura, but when it comes to themselves and their nearest and dearest they can be wonderfully clueless. And indiscrete. I'm primarily thinking of Vegeta, husband of my father's oldest friend Bulma, of Capsule Corporation fame.

An extremely closed man, trained to be from childhood due to his royal status, the suffering he endured over his youth only encouraged his emotional wall. His life didn't begin to settle until he met Bulma and began a family. I was only young at the time they first met, but by then I had learnt how the ki dynamics between friends, families and partners worked. I was always people-watching with the then relatively new sense I'd acquired, and so I turned my attention to studying their burgeoning attraction. Bulma bounced from an amicably ended relationship with a now still good friend, (martial artist and West City Taitans' player Yamcha), finding herself drawn to someone who, quite frankly, was a deadly adversary until then. Anyone who knows my Auntie Bulma will not be surprised at Vegeta's past; Yamcha himself was a bad-boy back in the day (though not to the same extent I hasten to add). Over the coming months, Bulma's attraction ramped up. She spend an inordinate amount of time complaining about Vegeta to my mother Chichi, though I couldn't quite understand why seeing as her guard was completely down around him and her aura even sought him out in the room. Mom just said "women are complicated" and left it at that, which really didn't help my studies.

I'd visit a lot over the next couple of years and Vegeta was always around "training". One day I caught Vegeta himself, still as gruff as ever, with a subtle change in his aura's movement. It was far more receptive, and Bulma's more assured. Nothing had changed on the outside from what I could tell at any rate, but the interplay of their aura had definitely shifted. It was still nothing like my parents', their aura effectively a unit even when Mom was angry at Dad. But there was definitely something between the two. I asked Mom again and whilst she told me it was rude to get involved in other people's business, she looked fit to burst with gossip. Doing the math, this must have been around the time Trunks was conceived. I know that whilst Vegeta's attitude improved somewhat, especially a year or so after Trunks was born, it took many more years for him to outwardly catch up with his aura and recognise he cared about his family. Even still, his aura never moved in the same way as Dad's. My Dad's carefree and encompassing everyone, Vegeta's instead alert and ready at all times, actively protective around those he cared the most more than sharing passively. There were rare times though he was at peace and softened completely with his children, these times becoming more and more frequent (and less jarring to witness) as he aged and mellowed.

[ Figure 2 ]

[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/169265923392/1point5#two ]

 _Bra and Pan playing as kids, with Vegeta looking on. The girls' ki is mixed and friendly, extremely trusting. Vegeta claimed he was unconsciously protecting Bra, although I suspect he was participating in some light-hearted cheating._

Sensing aura isn't limited to those who can actively use ki. It is an internal sense that is brought to conscious attention at times, usually as a gut feeling about a situation. Watching children, who are still subconsciously learning the connection between social cues and aura, can be fascinating. Children can play fight, instinctively aware of the (lack of) seriousness of the situation. They can throw pretend punches and wrestle, getting into very dangerous positions and still trust each other. Sometimes though the fight, with all the correct social cues like smiling and laugher and lack of force, is still misread and one person is antagonised enough to fight seriously, leading the end of the game. At times this is easily explainable as a misreading of visible social cues (as I've said before, not every behaviour or feeling can or should be attributed to genki). Other times however there is a mismatch in the reading of the intent of another person's genki. The body believes it senses actively hostile ki rather than passive, causing a reaction when there is no cause for alarm. This same kind of misreading can occur at all ages, when one is anxious or paranoid everything can feel hostile.

This misreading can happen when there's no strong source of genki, either. The sensation of somebody close by can be triggered when no one is present. Very rarely will this sensation be triggered by a randomly passing, stable, over-dense region of genki - a rare one-off event that will not reoccur in the same place. Most times we feel a nearby presence over and over again it is likely to be caused by the environment. Anything from gloomy lighting, odd, faint smells, settling beams in a house (recently popped capsule houses are notorious), echoing sounds and even the wind hitting the outside of the building can set off a feeling of being haunted. When particular events align they can trigger the same set of physical sensations that are activated when sensing particular genki, encouraging the final sense, the ki-sense, to presume it should be responding and return sensation as such. It's the same experience as watching a video clip with the sound off and "hearing" the sound effects where you expect them to be. Your mind is very capable of filling in the blanks and causing you be believe someone, the same person over and over again, is nearby. Sometimes we believe it is someone we know. This could be because the sensations match our own impression of their ki signature. More often than not it's purely the mind trying to make sense of nonsense and latching onto the most "obvious" person; someone we've lost and have been dreaming about or the haunting we "know" goes on in the building. If the sensation is persistent and weather or time-of-day dependent, it is most likely a phantom ki-sense you're experiencing. As you grow accustomed to sensing ki the ability to discriminate correctly grows.

(A note: A haunting could of course be a spirit cursed to ceaselessly wander the mortal realm by a demon. If you believe this to be the case please get in contact as Mr. Piccolo and I thought we'd found and lifted the curse on them all.)

One final example of auratic effect and consequence. It encompasses an on-going theme for the kids, and what I guess could happen with the next generation of ki-users. When you can use ki from a young age oftentimes the rules governing what is and isn't possible aren't clear. It becomes more a mother-tongue than a rigorously learnt language; sometimes the simplest of grammar rules lay hidden. This has its merits - not knowing the limits allows for poetry-like play and the breaking of received wisdom. Some of the best techniques have come from the kids not knowing something should be near-enough impossible. But not understanding the underlying components of a mother tongue and how to extrapolate your knowledge in a structured fashion can leave gaps. Those gaps are filled with what makes "sense" to the user, and that can lead to ridiculous misunderstandings.

* * *

 _February Age 794, Paozu Place café in Satan City after close, with Goten (26), Trunks and Marron, joined by Capsule Corp engineer and Trunks' partner Mai (28)._

Gohan: _I'm going to ask you a question, and it can be construed as a little… personal._

Trunks: _Ominous…_

Gohan: _It's a question Goten asked me a long time ago, and I rebuffed it at the time because of that._

Marron: _He asks a lot of those kinds of questions, you'll have to be specific?_

Goten: _Hey I-… okay yeah._

Gohan: _You asked me when Videl and I started dating and again when we got married._

Goten: _OH! - Really? You want that in the book?_

Gohan: _It's a useful illustration of aura._

Goten: _Please don't illustrate that._

Mai: _What's the question?_

Goten: _I asked how you're supposed to …kiss someone as a ki-user._

Marron: _Kissing or… "kissing"?_

Goten: _Let's just say growing up in the country taught me the mechanics, just not the logistics. Can't you write the section yourself? You_ did _have Pan._

Gohan: _I will. Just, I'm curious, because you did eventually stop asking._

Marron: _Why would you think_ that _was a problem?_

Trunks: _When you're flicking marbles into orbit by age five it does eventually occur to you that you could do that to a person accidentally. Especially as every time we've ever smashed something we were frustrated or… over-excited._

Goten: _We wondered why that didn't happen with other people._

Trunks: _Specifically why our Mom's were still on-planet. Father's being who they are and all._

Goten: _Gohan was the only person we felt we could ask and you let us down, bro._

Gohan: _Sorry._

Goten: _Too late…_

Marron: _You idiots._

Mai: _What did you do then?_

Goten: _Forgot for a while, but the situation got desperate when you turned up, Mai, and Trunks spent most of his time panicking. "I want to kiss her. What if I get to kiss her? I don't want her to DIE."_

Trunks: _We don't need to go into that._

Mai: _Oh we very much do._

Goten: _S'okay bud I'm not. The plan was genius, just suppress your power level._

Marron: _I swear to God there's not a gnat's common sense between you both._

Trunks: _Didn't claim there was._

Marron: _That's the worst thing you can do. The snapback you guys must have…_

 _Mai: Sounds sensible to me, so what's wrong with it?_

Trunks: _To maintain ki suppression you need to cut off emotion, right?_

Mai: _Oh… so practically impossible - did I dodge a bullet?_

Goten: _Grannypants, you did indeed dodge a bullet by breaking our young prince charming's heart until-_

Trunks: The bullet _was taken by a lovely, very insistent girl we met on a South Island beach one summer who took a shine to Goten-_

Goten: _She half-cornered me -_

Trunks: _If I remember correctly she thought it was really important she had a summer romance -_

Goten: _We were fourteen by the way -_

Trunks: _And your first kiss was so bad -_

Goten: _Not my fault! I was suppressing, couldn't feel a thing -_

Trunks: _She made you do it again and again until it matched what she wanted?_

Marron: _You lucky ass._

Goten: _I stopped trying to reel it in in the end, thinking if she got hurt she'd at least leave me alone. Nothing happened, I calmed down, ki-sharing kicked in, then I worked out why people_ wanted _to make out._

Marron: _You lucky, lucky ass._

Goten: _Not really. She got the 'romance' she wanted, told me "that was ok I guess" then left me standing there like a melon just as I was starting to enjoy myself._

Mai: _And so, you've been trying to make up for that one-star review ever since?_

Goten: _See, you joke…_

* * *

The main crux of Goten's question was one I've heard many times before from extremely bold strangers. The Great Saiyaman is a public figure, mostly appearing to stop crime and save lives - and at those rare events he was strong-armed into attending by his father-in-law. As part of being the Great Saiyaman I've had to scoop, carry and otherwise manhandle strangers, criminal and victim alike. Both are under great stress and experience a massive surprise when being effortlessly picked up and flown places, and the oddest nonsense will tumble out their mouths. Usually people telling me my "name", telling me over and over again we're flying, asking if they're dreaming, and sometimes those in trouble apologising profusely for being a bother. Those were fun flights. Though there are a few people who, with all mental clarity, take the flight as a chance to manhandle me back. These passengers were far more difficult to be patient with. I have been propositioned extremely bluntly on a ridiculous number of occasions, their remarks making it painfully obvious they believe the prospect of spending time with me to be both a dangerous and - exhilarating - experience. Papayaman receives the same level of comments, if not more as he conscientiously spends time in the public sphere at charity events. Even his silent helper Shadows, dressed in uniforms so black you can't determine their shape to even work out _who_ you might be propositioning, get the same questions. One of the team - if it isn't obvious by now - is of course my daughter, and whilst she is a grown woman and more than capable of handling herself I still find the stories she brings to dinner vexing.

So, herein lies the terribly boring solution to the mystery and please, _please_ , I _beg_ of you, stop asking us.

As Goten alluded to and we have already discussed, when people are friendly their ki exchanges as a form of social bonding. If the ki is accepted as familiar enough, the guard response (and permutations that go beyond that like increased strength) extends through and beyond the individual, effectively causing the group to be a unit. Touch between people parts these guards completely so they aren't felt, the same way my guard parts when I put my hands together. This occurs when those involved are relaxed, or at least experiencing positive intent towards each other. The more wrapped up with each other people are, the tighter bond and the lower the strength differential becomes. Unless someone actively intends to block this automatic social bonding - which would either be a withdrawal of participation or would require a competence with ki - spending time with a ki-user is no more dangerous than a non-ki-user. Although, given that genki carries emotional and sensational information, one could argue that these social interactions have the capacity to be more intense between ki-users.

Marron quite rightly points out that suppressing your ki output to match the person you're with, whilst sounding sensible, is not a great idea. Briefly, as this will be covered in a later exercise, suppressing genki output takes concentration and a calm mind to prevent the emotional fluctuations that drive it. Matching the energy level of a non-ki-user is often not a stable state for those with a high power level, so it is an extremely difficult task, with particular situations making emotional stability near-impossible. Should concentration slip, what Marron referred to as "snapback" will occur. This is the genki output rapidly returning to it's stable base state. Going from a lower strength to a higher one in this fashion could be dangerous to those nearby, as the flare of aura immediately rejects anything in the vicinity to "clean" the body and aura of any foreign genki and run it's checks. The concentration slip could be a fraction of a second, but by then the other person could have experienced a nasty "shock" or even be pushed away. This snapback isn't all bad, it can be modified and amplified in battle as a surprise way to break holds. Although, I wouldn't recommend trying it with people you like.

You'll notice we've been discussing the movement of aura and the interplay with intent but not exactly how to perceive and influence them. This forms the basis of chapter two. Until then however I believe it is prudent to understand how perception works in general, and how this changes when sensing ki.


	7. 1-6 Colour: From Source to Perception p1

_**1.6 - Colour: From Source to Perception (part 1)**_

* * *

I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive this seeming tangent from our ongoing discussion of genki. There's a particular, wonderful subtlety of ki-sense that I wish to explain fully and to do so requires a crash course in… well most of modern science, to be frank. You may be tempted to skip this section as I guess for many readers it tugs on those threadbare, unpleasant memories of high school (or memories yet to be made for you younger readers). In that case I hope you at least skim this section and feel encouraged to return as we progress. Some of the concepts I describe here will appear in modified forms throughout the rest of the textbook, and I would hate for you to miss what I believe are astounding parallels throughout the natural world.

I've been attempting to paint the appearance of genki for a while now to give you the impression of what the world looks like to me. I say attempt, not to appear cloyingly modest about my artwork (I am doing my best!), but to impress that it is extremely difficult to portray ki with the limited visual palette alone. The images I've painted are an ugly mess of colour, I admit. In paint Pan appears an orange/brown, although I hope you could make out the colours were in fact red and green (and some yellow). With paint, colours run and mix. If you put every colour of the rainbow on a page it appears a murky brown. In ki-sense this mixing doesn't occur however, and the colours stay bright and distinct.

There is more than just colour, too. There are a mix of senses and triggered memories that contribute to ki signatures. Laughter, the sensation of spinning when dancing, dark chocolate… these are all images invoked that encompass my understanding of Pan's ki, and yet the sum of these ideas alone can not do her ki justice. These interpretations are subjective, of course. If I had never tasted chocolate I may have described her ki like sweetened coffee - bitter and sweet with great depth - and I would be just as close. The red elements of her ki are very much the "Son" family signature - lively, warm and fun. The green is more Videl's family, the cosy bitter chocolate definitely from her mother.

The question is then, why is there such a difference in perception between the colours as experienced by the eyes and colours through ki-sense? Why can't I differentiate every every colour of the rainbow if they're overlapping with my eyes but can with ki? To explain, we need to begin with light itself and how colour arises in the first place before moving onto the brain.

[ figure 1a,b ]

[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/169361700882/1point6p1#one ]

 _Colours of objects under different lights. My helmet looks black under blue light. Why is that?_

In a sense, the world does not truly have colour. Colour itself is subjective and lives in our mind and the mind can be fooled. Why is it that the helmet above looks orange in sunlight but black in blue light - why not a orange-blue mix? But colour is not completely imaginary, the experience is triggered by _something_. That something is the energy of light, and so we should begin by understanding the nature and properties of light itself.

Light is a bizarre yet helpful phenomenon. We tend to think of it as a nebulous cloud of colour and brightness (or lack thereof) surrounding us. Like solid objects can be broken down into their smallest building blocks known as atoms (or a group of atoms joined together, a molecule), so can light. These little packets of light energy are known as photons. These photons have an energy, a direction of motion and a speed. The maximum speed light can travel is the "speed of light through a vacuum", that is the speed light travels through empty space and is pretty fast, seventeen times around the Earth on one second. Photons travels a little slower though materials like glass, air and water, about a third slower though glass, but still in day to day life photon movement is practically instantaneous. Rarely is a photon by itself; the number of photons passing through a surface within a set period of time is known as the flux. The more photons emitted from (say) a flashlight, the brighter the light beam will be. Each of those photons has an associated energy and this energy the photon has is responsible for the photon's "colour".

[ figure 2 ]

[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/169361700882/1point6p1#two ]

 _The different types of light given out by the Sun and their brightnesses. We've evolved to see the brightest light as that's the most useful to humans._

Think of the rainbow and the order of colour it contains. Each of those colours has an associated energy running from low to high; red light has a low energy, violet a higher energy. In the grand scheme these energies are very close - violet light being approximately only double the energy of red light. Contrast that to "colours" of light we can't see, beyond the optical section of the light spectrum, that can be thousands of times more or less energetic than the light we can. Light that's beyond the red part of the rainbow has a lower energy than red and is known as infra-red light. We can't see this light, but we can sometimes feel it as heat. TV remotes work with infrared light. Microwaves and radio waves are other low energy kinds of light. Note - specific microwaves made from a microwave oven are dangerous because they are tuned to cause water to vibrate and therefore cook food, microwave light in general is not dangerous. Light that's beyond the violet part of the spectrum has a higher energy than violet light and is called ultra-violet or UV light. Some birds and insects can see this kind of light. As UV photons have lots of energy, they can be dangerous to life. It's why we have to protect ourselves from the Sun. X-rays and gamma rays are another type of high-energy light that are even more damaging without protection. Every one of these colours has a defined, specific energy of light associated with it.

 _[ Figure 3 ]_

[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/169361700882/1point6p1#three ]

 _The photon and wave analogy of light are equivalent. The number of wavelengths that pass per second is known as the frequency._

Thinking of light travelling as little balls of photons is a helpful way to map how light moves in straight lines and how it can bounce off surfaces. But light can be thought of as a wave, too (and honestly, many of the particle-like behaviours of photons can be rewritten like waves, but we're not taking an undergraduate class in physics here). The kind of wave I'm describing is an _oscillation,_ an up and down movement, like a ripple on a pond. The wave moves through a space and has peaks and troughs, and a height. What was previously modelled as a collection of photons can now be thought of as waves travelling through a space. The energy of the photon we had previously is now translated to the energy of the wave. Now, rather than hand-wavingly assigning an energy to a photon, we can describe this as a physical property of the wave. A high energy wave oscillates (moves up-and-down) faster than a low energy wave. As a light wave travels passed you start a stopwatch - more peaks per second will pass you by with a high energy wave than a low energy wave. The number of peaks per second passing you is known as the _frequency_ of light. As light travels at a fixed speed (through a defined medium) it follows that a high energy wave must have a shorter distance between peaks than a low energy wave. This distance between peaks is known as the _wavelength_. Energy, wavelength and frequency then, are all interchangeable concepts for light waves. Note: that the energy of the wave has nothing to do with the height of the wave (which you might expect), only the wavelength does. The height of a light wave - the _amplitude_ \- is a measure of intensity and is a little like talking about the photon flux leaving the end of the flashlight.

It's common in science discipline to use the word describing light energy that is most appropriate for their work, in astronomy for example this is relative to the way the telescope works. Radio waves from space are picked up with tuned arrays of radio masts, so radio astronomers speak of the wave frequency. Infrared, visible and UV astronomers use telescopes with mirrors acting as lenses and talk about waves and wavelengths. X-ray astronomers need to capture their very rare high energy X-rays, so they speak in terms of the electron-Volts (a measure of energy) of individual photons. Just like astronomers using the most appropriate word for the context, I'll be doing the same with the words photon and light wave, and wavelength, frequency and energy. Just remember that they're interchangeable concepts - give or take some math.

A key point to note here. It is perfectly possible to have two beams of light where the individual photons (or light waves) have different energies and therefore colour, but have a photon flux each such that the _total_ energy leaving both flashlights is the same. So the _power_ , the energy leaving the flashlight per second, can be exactly the same, but the _properties_ of the light completely different. Please store that information for later.

Light from the Sun looks white, or neutral to our eyes. However white is not a colour with one corresponding wavelength. In fact it's more that we have evolved to see a combination of light waves matching daylight as neutral. As every child knows the Sun's light is actually a rainbow of colours; we evolved to see what we call visible light as these are the brightest colours emitted from the Sun across its spectrum, and therefore the most useful light to be able to see. Unless something is very hot (like the old-style light-bulb filaments or glowing fire embers) it will not give off visible light, only reflect or _scatter_ photons. The next question to ask then is how we move from an entire rainbow of light in the environment to objects having individual colours in the world around us. What about an object chooses the colour it has?

To understand exactly how an object gets its colour we need to understand quantum mechanics and atoms. Not the entirety of quantum mechanics I hasten to add, but just enough of the 'what's without the rigorous mathematical 'why's (though you're welcome to do further reading).

The world around is made of matter, "stuff", atoms. These building blocks come in different types - hydrogen and helium are the two lightest types of atoms, we breathe in and use oxygen, out bodies contain lots of carbon. The number of particles called protons in the centre of the atom determines its type. Each proton has a positive electric charge of 1, and so the atom's centre has an overall positive electric charge. There are also neutrons, neutral particles in the centre that can vary by a few in number that help keep the atom's centre stable. Together, these particles make the atom's _nucleus_. To balance out the charge there are negatively charged particles called electrons surrounding the nucleus, an equal number of electrons and protons make a neutral atom.

In school textbooks you've probably seen cartoon pictures of electrons orbiting the nucleus much like the Moon orbits the Earth. This isn't strictly true. Electrons can be thought of like little ball particles, yes, but also as a wave (sound familiar?). If you recall waves, like ripples, have peaks and troughs. In particular, electrons bound to atoms are most easily thought of as a type of wave known as a standing wave. Standing waves happen when a wave has only a finite space to move backwards and forwards in. A string on a guitar is tied at both ends and so plucking it forces the ripple of the pluck to move left and right along the string, bouncing off the bridge and nut and sets up a standing wave. Around an atom an electron can be thought of as being stuck moving in a circle and so only particular shapes of wave are permissible.

 _[ figure 4 ]_

[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/169361700882/1point6p1#four ]

 _The connection between standing waves and electron energy levels, giving rise to very specific energy requirements for electrons to move between energy levels in an atom._

A standing wave is so-called as for all intents and purposes it appears as though the wave is stuck still. Some parts of the wave move up and down by a huge distance, and at the midpoint (nodes) between these the wave does not move up or down at all. By construction the points where, say, a guitar string is fixed must be a node, too. In the simplest case a node would be at either end and the centre would move up and down. Remembering that one wavelength is the distance between two peaks with a trough between, then the distance between the two end nodes here is half a wavelength. In music this is known as the fundamental frequency and it is the lowest energy wave that will fit in the gap. You can add more nodes in the gap too, each an equal distance from each other to make waves with shorter wavelengths. The possible frequencies allowed for a standing wave in a space then are always going to be multiples of that fundamental frequency. This is why a plucked guitar string has a specific sound, the sound frequencies are related to standing waves and these higher so-called harmonics are multiples of that fundamental frequency (the first harmonic), making music sound in tune and rich.

Like with the guitar string, a similar process happens to an electron. If we treat an electron as a standing wave around an atom (with an equally spaced number of nodes along the electron's orbit) then there are only some specific frequencies and therefore some energies that an electron can have. What the fundamental energy an electron in an atom can have is, and what the subsequence harmonics are, is dependent on the type of atom and what other atoms are nearby (if the atom is combined in a molecule or metal for example). An electron can be in its so-called _ground-state_ at the fundamental frequency, or with an injection of energy can jump to those higher harmonics or energy levels (a process called excitation). It is those very specific varying energy levels an electron can have (or more precisely, the difference in energy between the energy levels) that gives rise to an object's colour.

To prevent the inevitable letters I'd receive on this topic otherwise - yes, I am aware this is a simplification and that the subtleties of quantum mechanics mean there are more nuanced effects that a simple standing wave analogy doesn't cover (like spin, the shape of the electron orbitals, the effect of filling the electron shells on available energy levels or those not-quite-forbidden states). But it's a fair first approximation and standard, classical harmonics will appear later in a different situation. I trust the interested reader will investigate for further information.

We now have white sunlight hitting an object. We know that objects reflect or scatter light and the light that bounces off an object will have a colour. I've just explained the set of colours bounced back is governed by the very specific energy levels electrons in different atoms or molecules can have. The electron will interact with light in two ways depending on the light's energy, either through absorption or scattering.

 _[figure 5]_

[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/169361700882/1point6p1#five ]

 _Absorption and scattering, the two processes that happen to light dependent on the light's energy._

First, absorption. Look at the clothes you're wearing. There are probably one or more dyes on them. A dye is a complicated molecule that, crucially, has differences in electron energy levels corresponding to many different energies of visible light. As mentioned previously an electron can move up an energy level if it is given energy to do so. That energy comes from photons. To be absorbed the photon must have precisely the correct energy to cover the energy gap between the levels (all of the photon must be absorbed) so the photon must be the right colour to cause the electron to jump up. This colour of light is then removed from the spectrum.

What about those colours that aren't quite right? Well, this light will probably still hit an electron as it passes through your clothes. But instead of being absorbed by the electron it bounces off - the light is _scattered._ The maths of exactly how it bounces depends on the shape of the fabric surface, how the electron is moving relative to the light and the chemistry of the dye. As clothing is really rough (it's no smooth sheet of glass), the light can be scattered in any number of directions. If your clothes were really smooth (say, a helmet) the light would bounce off in a similar direction allowing you to see a reflection. It is the scattered colours that we see.

Those remembering the laws of energy conservation may wonder what happens to the absorbed light. The jumped-up electrons now exist at a higher energy level, and to accept a photon of the same colour they need to drop down again. To do so they can lose that energy spontaneously, emitting energy in the form of another photon. The emitted photon won't necessarily be of the same energy, the same colour as the one absorbed (otherwise everything would still look white). Visible light is fairly high energy, so when an electron absorbs visible light it jumps up a few levels in one step. When the electron loses energy again it will do so in smaller steps on the way down the energy level ladder. As these are lower energy steps the light emitted will probably be in the infrared instead. We can't see infrared, but we can feel it on our skin as heat. This is why black clothes, absorbing all the light and reradiate in the infrared, feel hotter in sunlight than white clothes that scatter most of the light.

This also explains our puzzle with my helmet at the start. Why does the orange turn black in blue light, rather than brown? It's because only the red part of the spectrum would be scattered by the helmet, the blue absorbed, so no visible light is scattered back.

We now have light of a particular set of wavelengths reflected in our direction. How does this go from wavelengths to a colour we understand?


	8. 1-6 Colour: From Source to Perception p2

After sunlight has either been absorbed or scattered from the surface of an object, we're left with a barrage of photons that can be any particular pattern of wavelengths from the rainbow (a spectrum). How does the eye and brain even begin to process this myriad of wavelength information into colour?

Dragging your mind back to that wonderful world of Biology 101, we know light enters the eye through the pupil, passes through the lens and is focussed onto the back of the eye. Then there's some handwaving discussion of a special type of cell, something about signals being passed through an optic nerve into the brain and voila, we can see. That's usually where the explanation in class stops, never diving into the depths of what's truly going on in the back of the eye and brain. It's a huge shame; a fuller description makes the difference in perception between seeing with your eyes and ki extremely obvious. And who would I be to deny you, dear reader, a learning opportunity?

 _[ figure 1 ]_

 _[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/169481695052/1point6p2/#one ]_

The eye is a delicate instrument and it has evolved to protect itself. If a damagingly bright level of light is detected entering the pupil, the iris will restrict to reduce the amount of light. The iris is scaffolded by a ring of muscle that can contract to make the pupil smaller, and radial muscles that can pull the ring back out, widening the pupil instead. Behind the muscles lies a thin layer of pigmented cells. Those cells act like screens, preventing light other than that from the pupil entering the eye. The iris' colour is mostly driven by concentrations of melanin, the same pigment giving skin its colour; the usual colour range from a deep brown with high concentration (like my own), blue with a low concentration, and those middling hazels, deep greens and green-blues (also like my own at times). The darker the iris, the better this protection.

Behind the iris is the lens, a fairly solid, curved and clear mass. The shape of the lens causes light to bend as it passes through and focuses light down at the back of the eye. The lens can stretch to focus down light at different distances, but there is a finite limit to its abilities. Even with standard, healthy vision your finger still looks fuzzy if you hold it too close to your eye. The same failure occurs at long distances, too. Not all eyes are built the same and if the range of distances your eye works at isn't suitable for your life, you'll often struggle focussing and may need glasses to offset the problem. With the more common condition of near-sightedness the focus point of light from the lens falls just short of the back of the eye. this could be caused by the eye being too long or the lens set too far back. Someone with near-sightness would probably hold a book closer to their face to comfortably read it. I have the opposite problem of far-sightedness. My eyesight is marginally more suitable for long-distance vision, therefore not so helpful for reading tiny, spidery handwriting from my colleagues or performing intricate bench-work in the lab, so I wear glasses to help. Far-sightedness runs in my family. Dad probably should have worn glasses too, but he did so little regular reading he improvised by squinting and holding books at arms length instead. I have the sneaking suspicion many of our friends assumed he was barely literate for the longest time.

You may notice from the figure the incoming image gets turned upside-down in the eye. Luckily your brain can combine the image with other senses and calculate it needs to flip the image up the correct way. What you may _not_ know is, if you wear a pair of glasses that flips the image _before_ it gets to you eye, your brain will adapt over the space of two weeks or so and re-correct the image inversion. This is brain plasticity in action and shows how the brain can adapt to new or modified senses. And not only that but this correction doesn't happen all at once; oddly the brain flips the parts of the scene it believes are important first, usually faces. How strange must that be to see? I would very much like to try this experiment for a month to test my own brain's plasticity, although I'm not sure how long Videl would find my pin-balling around the house amusing. – I sincerely apologise; the notes Pan has left on this section's draft are getting increasingly exasperated at these tangents but I'm letting this fun-fact lie because it's _fantastic_.

 _[ figure 2 ]_

 _[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/169481695052/1point6p2/#two ]_

Back to that focused image. Light travels to the back of the eye, hitting the retina. The retina contains a sheet of cells sensitive to light. There are four types of cell, three of a cone-type that respond to different colours (covering blue, red and green light) and one rod-type that responds to a broad range of colours and low light levels. The cells are so-named due to their shape. The cones sit with the highest density on the part of the retina corresponding to the region at the centre of our vision. Rods barely exist in the centre but have a higher density in our peripheral vision. About half of the information from our vision comes from this tiny centre spot, the fovea centralis. It's why the very centre of your vision is so much better than your peripheral. Animals and some zoomorphic people often have reduced colour vision (usually missing the red cone) with a different distribution of these cells across the eye. Rabbits, evolved to survive as prey animals, have a line of high-density of these cells across the eye so they can see clearly along the horizon for predators, instead of the clear centre of vision like anthropoids.

What makes these cone cells suitable for colour vision? There is a pigment in the cells that absorbs light at a particular set of wavelengths causing an electron in the molecule to move - sound familiar? When the electron moves the whole molecule changes shape to compensate, becoming the right shape to fit inside a receptor within the cell, much like a key fitting into a lock. This in turn triggers a nerve attached to the cell to fire. Outside the fovea centralis there's more than one cell attached to a nerve and so the nerve has to reach a different activation threshold to fire, but the principle is the same. Oddly, the nerves are attached to the front of the retina rather than the back, but the nerves don't interfere with your vision. Those nerves bundle together into a thick mass of cabling known as the optic nerve and pass out the back of the eye into the brain.

Whilst our eyes can respond to a many wavelengths of light and there exists an overlap in what cones respond (for example yellow light triggers both the red and green cones in different amounts) the signal leaving the eye in regards to colour is _only four numbers_ relating to the intensity of red, green, blue light and overall intensity. That's it. That's why LCD monitors, with only red, green and blue pixels next each other, can trick our eyes into thinking there's a full spectrum of colours on the screen - the screen providing only the information that passes from the eye regardless so your brain cannot tell the difference.

With so few types of detectors then, a fault in one will have a large impact on vision. Some forms of colourblindness are caused by missing cone types. Other forms by mutations in the cone cells that mean the response function of the cells greatly overlap, so green and red cones are almost always triggered at similar levels, for example. The colour vision in some cases can be corrected by wearing sunglasses that block wavelengths of light in the confusing overlap, allowing the brain to distinguish between red and green far easier.

The colour signal has now been broken down from the nuanced spectrum we began with to just three (plus one) numbers. This is an absurdly clever form of data compression by the eye; imagine how many cones we'd need to capture every wavelength explicitly? The nerves take this even further - instead of keeping the absolute values of these red, green and blue cells it combines the signals in two different ways. The first is (red signal) - (green signal), the "red-green channel" and is a proxy for yellow light. The second is calculated as (red signal) - (green signal) - (blue signal), the so-called "yellow-blue" channel. This one extra step, whilst seemingly arbitrary, reduces the information and processing needed from four numbers to three, a reduction of 25%. Since most anthropoidal people rely on vision this is a highly significant saving for the brain to make.

From these three numbers the brain can more-or-less re-expand and perceive the entire colour spectrum. As the data about particular wavelength intensities has been so compressed however, the reconstruction in the brain is not loss-less. This can lead to a few interesting quirks of colour vision (and not ki-sense) which I'll get to in a moment.

 _[ figure 3 ]_

 _[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/169481695052/1point6p2/#three ]_

 _The main regions I'll be discussing and their location in the brain, using Pan's head. I could make a Dad comment here about actually finding her brain but I won't._

First, how and where this vision reconstruction happens. The information from the eye needs to pass from the retina to the correct regions of the brain. Signals from the cells (and because the cells are attached to nerves fixed in place, the spatial location) are sent down the optic nerve towards the back of the brain where the visual processing regions live, the so-called visual cortex. On route is the thalamus - two lumps of brain cells (neurons) on either side of the centre of the brain that perform partial processing on visual as well as taste, auditory and touch sensation. Sense of smell is a little different; molecules we breathe in binding to receptors in the olfactory bulb at the back of the nose, a part of the brain itself. This very direct connection could be why the sense of smell is so immediate and memories so intense even for anthropoids, even more so for animals and zoomorphic people (and my family) with sensitive noses. The thalamus is able to weigh up which sensory information is important enough to properly process and passes on to other areas of the brain, and which senses need our attention more right now as we only have a limited amount of attention to give at any one time. This is why you'll often find yourself turning down music when driving in an unfamiliar area, or closing your eyes when using ki-sense.

For vision in particular, the thalamus's analysis is used to help focus the eyes and bring the signals from both eyes into alignment, then information is passed onto other areas of the brain. Whilst there's a general hierarchical structure between sub-regions of the visual cortex (the aptly-named V1 coming before V2 for example), the thalamus has connections to - and can therefore communicate with - all these regions directly.

These "backstreet" connections to some areas of the visual cortex are thought to explain blindsight, a phenomenon where some individuals can't see some part of their field of vision but are still able to act as though they can. They're able to reach out for and grab objects accurately without consciously seeing them. In this case, the lower parts of the visual cortex responsible for projecting the external world have partially failed, but the regions able to label objects (whatever they may be) and locate them in space has not. If the information in the brain travelled strictly in one direction this would not be possible. Note, blindsight isn't the same as ki-sense as it's still visually driven, (those with blindsight wouldn't be able to perform these tasks if they shut their eyes) but shows how incredibly complicated and interwoven the brain is.

Whilst the thalamus doesn't play much of a role in colour processing, the concept of backstreets through the brain and processing information without perceiving it becomes important when we learn how to use ki to move at speeds our bodies haven't evolved to. At that point your visual system will become a deceptive mess and we'll be revisiting integrating your senses in later chapters.

Most of the information from the eyes then travels right to the back of the brain into the visual cortex. The regions of the brain that understand visual information are ridiculously complex and still not well understood, particularly in human anatomy as opposed to rats for example. So, to avoid having to reissue this textbook every few months with updates and drawing the ire of an academic community I'm not immersed in, I'll skirt the finer details. What we _can_ say for certain is there are defined regions of the visual cortex that can:

\- encode spatial information (what signals are from where in the visual field to build a picture)

\- find contrasting edges

\- distinguish between horizontal and vertical lines of colour and contrast

\- compare signals from both eyes to calculate depth

\- monitor incoming signals over time to detect motion direction and understand that in 3D space

\- distinguish objects

\- distinguish colour and map them onto the image.

These functions may occur in multiple places with slightly different results to be merged together, (colour is picked out of the visual signal in regions called V1 and V4 for example, not just in one place) but all-in-all it's bafflingly complex even for seasoned academics.

The main signal enters V1 right at the back of the brain and radiates out in two directions - dorsally (that is, towards the top of the brain) and ventrally (along the side and underneath of the brain). The signal moving dorsally is referred to as the "where" pathway, moving through areas of the brain associated with movement. These regions help you understand your body in relation to the space you're seeing. I know these pathways are pretty strong for me! The ventral pathway is the "what" pathway and information moves through regions like the temporal lobe (associated with memory) and the limbic system (governing emotion). This pathways labels what's in your visual field. What makes a book a book? How do we know that an object is a square-shape if we've never seen a true, perfect square in our lives to compare to? Who knows exactly, but the ventral pathway seems to.

The flow is not just a one-way street either - the parts of the brain directing attention (the salience network) can feed back down to these visual regions and modulate their activity, effectively switching off their communication with the conscious areas of your brain for a time. Have you ever been thinking so hard about something you can't remember what you've been reading? Blame the salience network switching to "internal mode" and ignoring external stimuli.

 _[ figure 4 ]_

 _[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/169481695052/1point6p2/#four ]_

 _Metamers - colours that look the same to our eyes but have a completely different spectrum. The similarity between colours can break down under different types of light in the environment._

V4 is where the colour information is combined to form all the hues we know, and feeds into that ventral "what" pathway. It's here that our eyes are deceived by colour. The extreme data compression the eye performs means we have information only on brightness, red to green and yellow to blue, rather than intensity information for every possible wavelength of light. This, then, means we can encounter what are known as metamers - different combinations of light wavelengths that produce exactly the same colour in our eye under normal conditions. You could have a spectrum with one wavelength of yellow light and a different spectrum with red and green light. As long as the difference between the signal that's picked up the red and green cones is the same (with no blue cone signal), the result of that red-green channel calculation will be the same value (0) and you'll perceive the same yellow colour. These metamers are interesting as if you had a different set of colours in the incident light (say, only red light rather than a rainbow of white light), this will cause the spectrum of light scattered from an object to differ and the metamer pairing break.

Whilst we can see a huge range of colours, the existence of these compressed channels means there are some mixes of colours we just can't experience. Imagine we had wavelengths of light entering the eye that were yellow and blue. The red-green channel picks out the yellow fine but then moving to the yellow-blue channel calculation it'll fall over. We can see reddish-orange colours and reddish-blue (purples) but we can't see yellow-blue as a colour, nor reddish-green. Whilst these colour mixes definitely _can_ exist as a spectrum of light, in our brain they can't exist at all.

Usually.

In a previous section I mentioned a condition called synaesthesia. This is the mixing of sensory signals, where one sense can trigger another. One of the most common is grapheme-colour synaesthesia, experiencing colour when reading words and numbers either within the mind's eye ('association') or 'projected' onto the letter themselves. The colours are as consistent as the reading of the letter - the colours appear to the person at the time the letter or number is understood and are intrinsic to one another. Grapheme-colour synaesthesia is caused by an overlap in function and increased size of the right fusiform gyrus, a long region of brain matter on the underside of the brain and is the area responsible for "labelling" the faces, shapes, places and words in your vision. It connects to the angular gyrus above to further process shape and colour labels. It's here that this particular misfiring, that a letter shape _must_ be a particular colour, occurs.

It is an odd condition. Even projection synaesthetes, those that physically see a letter or number coloured in the world around them, know that what they're experiencing is not a real colour. They know for example that the letters on this page are black, both truly physically seeing the colour and processing and labelling the colour in the ventral stream as black. But whilst the synaesthete does not see a real rainbow of colours triggered when reading, they _do_ process and label the letters with colours regardless, like imagining the colour automatically. For them then it is a partial experience of colour.

Crucially for synaesthetes, as the accidental synaesthetic colours are not passing through cone cells and mixing in the red-green, yellow-blue channels, the final colour result doesn't have to be bound by the limit of the eyes. Synaesthetes _can_ "see" yellow-blue and red-green colours. They won't be able to experience the colour beyond what they see with their eyes, only know and insist that the colours are definitely blue-yellow, as those were the label the brain assigned. This kind of mixing of signals applies for all synaesthetic responses whereby strange, seemingly unphysical sensations can occur. Other types of synaesthesia like "auditory taste" can leave a synaesthete disliking someone's name purely for the imaginary taste it leaves in their mouth. It can be very disruptive to lives at times, although useful as as memory aid.

What, then, does all this mean for ki-sense? Whilst my own studies have been embarrassingly small (the number of reliable ki-users I know who would willingly lie in a body scanner numbering less than ten) I _have_ located brain regions that are associated with ki-sensing. You can read the paper if you like ("case study of fMRI responses in ki-sensing") although it is a lot of academic waffle for a simple take-home message. I just asked my friends and family to lie in the scanner and actively sense my ki with eyes closed as I sat in the control room, then compared it to them ignoring me and looking at bright lights and loud noises. Then bored them witless making them repeat it for half an hour on multiple days so I had huge stack of data to work with.

 _[ figure 5 ]_

 _[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/169481695052/1point6p2/#five ]_

As with a standard synaesthetic response, the fusiform and angular gyri were activated when there was no apparent need to be, as though they were "seeing" something. The same with hearing in auditory centres and active memory retrieval - all were activated, matching the experience of ki-sense touching on every part of sensation and combining into something more. Higher regions of the visual field are activated even when eyes were shut. This included some of the dorsal ("where") pathway, showing what I know from experience; that ki-sensers are projecting ki into the world around them in a vision-like way. This all means when I fail at communicating the intricacies of Pan's ki through drawing it is purely because the eye works with three colours and ki works with millions of possible - and seemingly impossible - combinations, never-mind every other sense and memory type that can be folded in. Ki-sense by default is a synaesthetic experience. There is no way for me to communicate the richness of ki-sense without getting you to learn to use it in the first place.

And if I haven't convinced you to work on developing your ki-sense after this, I don't think I can.

In case you've been wondering, it would have been impossible to sneak this study passed the University's ethics board without raising suspicion. Instead I did the study at Capsule Corp on their mostly-idle medical-grade scanner. Bulma installed it to settle an argument with Vegeta on how much damage his martial arts training was doing to his body. …Let's just say results were inconclusive as neither would concede. Bulma was very keen for me to use it, even running some of the analysis herself - she did admit in the end she was pleased something "less petty" came of the machine's installation. Conducting a study without ethics isn't good scientific practice I know, and for that and other questionable research I've performed on myself I fully expect to get into trouble, but needs must. I doubt anyone repeating this particular study would have trouble obtaining ethics however, so don't fret if you're ever asked to be part of the replication!

I've introduced a lot of science in this section, I realise. I'm hoping parts may be familiar to you, maybe you now have an army of "fun facts" to share at parties at least. It goes without saying that proficiency in ki-sense does not require this level of background knowledge, but I feel compelled to provide it nonetheless as it paints a fuller, multi-wavelength picture. Many of these concepts, whilst appearing tangential now, will be referred to again directly or in analogy. The dual-nature of light will rear its head again, for example, in the next section.


	9. 1-7 Ki Particles and Energies p1

_**1.7 - Ki Particles and Energies (part 1)**_

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 _A unanimous decision was made to dedicate this section to our infinitely patient and long suffering mother, Chichi. One of the many reasons for her suffering and our endless gratitude towards her will have become abundantly clear by the end of this section._

* * *

For this and the next two sections we're in a little of a chicken-and-egg situation. I'm going to describe the model of ki I've developed, through ki particles and energies, then how natural levels of ki flux and pressure are changed (though not how _to_ do that, that will be in the next chapter) and finally discuss the crucial background ki field and how that is utilised. However, understanding the origin of ki fully requires knowing about the background ki field, so there is no linear way to discuss this. Still, I shall try my best.

In this section I also want to take some time, since this is as good a place as any, to talk about an alien species I previously mentioned called "the Saiyans". There were at times heated discussions over whether I should add this or not. Eventually it was decided that though information on them may be more of side curiosity to include in this book, in a few generations it will become directly useful (I'd hope) to more and more people. That, and exploring this tangent, whilst very exposing to some and possibly alarming to others, will make life easier for everyone in the long run.

As with any scientific theory or model, my work is a best guess. Many years ago philosophers believed the world was at the centre of the Universe, surrounded by planets sat on singing spheres. This was as good an understanding of the Universe as any and was accepted as fact. As civilisation grew and time progressed questions were raised of this idea - if the Earth is at the centre of the Universe and the planets travel in perfect circles around them, why do the planets appear to move backwards at times in so-called retrograde motion? Surely the heavenly bodies are perfect and so must only move in circles? The philosophers adjusted their model, having planets moved in circles within circles, so sometimes the planets would appear to travel back on themselves. More and more observations of the planets were taken and as measurements improved more circles had to be added until the model broke down in absurdity. A better model was invented, the idea that the Sun was at the centre of all the planets and the planets - including the Earth - moved in circles around the Sun. That was far, _far_ simpler an explanation and had far better predictive power and so a paradigm shift, a movement from the paradigms of geocentricity to heliocentricity, took place. Small adjustments have been made to this model itself, planets orbiting in ellipses rather than circles and more, but the idea of the Sun at the centre still remains. This theory, encompassing the understanding of orbital motion, is our current best theory in this domain.

A strong theory can explain the current, known observations of a particular experiment or system. Further, the theory or model has some way of constructing a prediction in an experiment to test itself. If the theory fails it can be modified (with circles) and further twisted (circles upon circles) until it breaks completely and a simpler, more predictive explanation appears. It is now, then, I admit that my explanation and construction of ki particles and energies and fields is only that, a theory; a framing of the abstract in a way that makes some semblance of sense in a repeatable and predictable fashion. The Universe is a strange and wonderful place and whilst I feel I have been able to explain most parts of ki, I am positive there will be some technique invented in the future that scuppers my understanding completely. Of course I will feel some disappointment and frustration at the news should it happen, though the excitement of someone using that new observation to develop a more encompassing model is far greater to me. Until that day, this is what I have, and the buoying news that the greatest natural ki-users in the Universe barely understood a word of what I was going on about anyway.

I've been speaking of ki as a form of energy for some time now, as a way to transfer intent and energy to use in other forms from one place to another as a kind of nebulous cloud. But in truth, for individual and varying messages to be carried there needs to be some form of parcellation, a separation of intent into individual units - in the same way light can be divided into photons or matter into atoms. Crucially however, unlike the photons from the previous section that are in themselves packets of energy only, ki consists of both particles (essentially empty vessels) and ki energy, a substance that can encode raw energy and intent. The combination of the two in the body makes genki. This is a little more akin to an atom acting as a vessel and carrying a varied charge, for example.

Briefly, as I will cover this in 1.9, both ki particles and ki energy are derived from the ki field, an all-permeating undercurrent in the Universe that binds the Universe together. Ki particles cannot be created or destroyed, only taken up and dissipated. Ki energy can be created from other forms of energy (derived from food for example), and also spontaneously exists as part of the ki field like a form of noise. The natural state of ki particles and energy is to exist separated, a kind of neutrality. Life however needs the two combined and ordered, the particle acting as a vessel or carrier for the ki energy that expresses intent, the intent being used to monitor bodily functions or subconsciously communicate in a social setting. When genki leaves the centre, the unnatural state of the combination means it is inherently unstable and, without an explicit encoded intent telling the genki to persist as long as possible, the intent within the genki will degrade over time and the two eventually separate, both returning to the background field and noise.

 _[ Figure 1 ]_

 _[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/169633764812/1point7p1#one ]_

 _Figure demonstrating the ki particle/ki energy model, showing how different particle flow rates can still have the same total overall energy, and how ki signatures and intents can be coded within ki energy._

The centre itself is a store of ki particles. These are taken from the field and kept at a higher density from that of the background. The particles then flow from the centre at an approximately consistent rate until depleted, although under normal circumstances the natural replenishment rate of particles in the centre prevents that depletion from occurring. As highlighted in section 1-5, the size of the centre, whilst in real space can be thought of as a point in the lower abdomen that ki radiates from, can also be modelled to have a size, a spherical shape and therefore surface that is proportional to its capacity.

There appears to be a fixed relationship governing the size/capacity of an individual's centre, the standard flow rate of particles leaving the centre and the uptake rate of particles. That is, if no ki particles are taken up to replace those used, the centre will natural deplete itself within half an hour, no matter the lifeform. Further, the flow from the centre is not governed by a passive diffusion gradient as one would expect from a simple spherical centre with a physical surface area - the diffusion rate instead limited by the permeability of the centre's "surface". This keeps the average flow rate from the centre consistent until depletion and means, given a sufficiently large permeability of the surface, the entire centre could hypothetically be evacuated of particles within an instant. In other words. the centre loses particles at a fixed rate until the very last drop, and that rate can be modified to the point the centre could effectively explode itself.

The ability to collect particles is a natural and automatic behaviour of your centre. I've only been able to calculate this flow and depletion rate due to the existence of one technique known as fusion, which hinders this uptake ability. From the natural time-limit of the technique and the mandatory hour gap between fusions, I was able to calculate that the uptake-rate of ki particles is one-and-a-half times that of natural depletion. The full restoration of ki particles to the centre therefore takes an hour.

It is as the ki particles leave the centre they are assigned a ki energy. The body converts a proportion of food energy to ki energy to then create genki. It sits on the centre "surface", at that central point, and each particle is assigned a fixed (with some small variance) amount of ki energy as it passes through. It is only as ki energy nears depletion that this amount of ki per particle may drop as the body struggles to scrape together enough ki energy or food energy to convert to keep up, and this sputtering of genki is a huge warning flag that someone is about to run out of steam completely.

Each parcel of genki contains the individual's ki signature and could be imbued with intent or not, active or passive. Regardless of the intent, each parcel contains (roughly) the same amount of overall energy should it be converted. How?

Think of ki energy as string of letters (like a DNA code). Each letter is a piece of energy by itself, but the exact order of the letters has the capacity to carry a message or not. As the energy is parcelled up and assigned to the particle, at a minimum some particular letters will be ordered and strung all the way through as a repeating pattern. This is the ki signature. The ki signature acts like a password for the rest of the body to understand that this ki energy is safe, and the rest of the message the genki is carrying, the intent, should be acted upon.

One may conclude then that the greater the amount of ki energy assigned to a particle, the more complicated an intent can be. This is true, the most complicated techniques do require a higher ki energy per particle and not just a huge total energy to construct. We also know that the more complicated the intent i.e. the longer the instruction, the more likely the message is to degrade faster. This says to me that these complicated messages take many more bits or "letters" of ki energy to encode, and those are more susceptible to random swapping of letters than shorter messages. Intents are, like the ki signature, repeated throughout the ki energy where possible to maintain integrity and thus survive for longer.

When the ki reaches its destination the energy encoded within the message and ki signature itself can be converted into other forms of energy again - light, kinetic, you name it. The manner of conversion is also governed by the intent.

Why does ki need two components in this fashion, with the concept of an empty vessel to fill? Why not have the ki parcellating itself, much like photons from the previous section do?

The centre itself cannot be detected by anyone other than its owner. Combined ki particles and energy drag on the ki field and those particular vibrations are picked up through ki-sense. If ki existed as one entity this drag would always be present and thus always detectable. I could then directly detect how much energy an opponent had left, rather than be limited to their moment-by-moment output of ki energy as I am now. In reality when I sense my centre I am combining both what I can only describe as a sensation of "weight", a measure of the potential ki energy sitting on the centre surface, and a sensation of "wrongness" indicating how empty my typically full centre is. Both of these sensations do not impact on the ki field and thus cannot be sensed by others.

Further, I can suppress my energy level to zero by preventing any particles leaving my centre to pick up ki energy. Both those sensations of weight and wrongness do not change for me in this case (the wrongness marginally easing as the ki particles replenish), however anyone else attempting to sense me would not detect any ki. If ki existed as one entity, there would be no difference within and without the centre, this ki would be detectable to everyone and I would not be able to hide it. There needs to be some difference between within and without the centre for this to happen, therefore this separation.

This two-part nature is also reinforced by the two ways one can get tired as a heavy ki-user. The first we're all familiar with - when the amount of ki energy to be assigned to ki particles has been depleted, there is complete exhaustion. Without nutrition to begin the process of putting ki back onto the centre surface to be assigned or using donated passive genki, the user risks death. As returning from this state requires refuelling, this is a difficult position to bounce back from in battle, and is the most familiar way to get exhausted. The less common way is a complete exhaustion of ki particles - as the centre surface's permeability can be changed and despite the replenishment rate the centre can reach zero. This is far easier to recover from with just rest in battle, and then more careful management of the use of ki thereafter to build up the centre again.

If there were only ki packets with a fixed energy, users would only experience the first type of exhaustion and would not be able to recover from just a short rest.

If there was no separation, then one would believe ki packets to be same size for everyone, or even just within a person, or fixed to the length of the intent, and an increase in power level would be an increase the number of energy packets. This is not true. Even within a person one can vary the number of ki particles leaving the centre and the amount of energy per ki particle being assigned (the latter being subconsciously possible even for non-ki-users through emotional changes). These two different types of changes mean a two-fold increase in power level through one method can be far more draining and dangerous than a fifty-fold increase using a different method. Without this separation this difference in side effect becomes difficult to explain. Augmenting particle and energy outputs and how that reflects the power level, ki pressure and flux is discussed in the next section, as well as the different "notches" these increases have - it is not just a linear increase in effort needed to achieve increases in power levels.

I hesitate to give the fundamental nature of ki a full mathematical treatment beyond mere analogy. Whilst I do believe ki requires a fifth fundamental force to explain, for me to attempt to construct one would be doing a great disservice to The Standard Model of physics as it stands - even if it is routinely ignored by Auntie Bulma's engineering projects. That, and, as multi-disciplinary as my research is, I am not a theoretical physicist so wouldn't dare embarrass myself in this fashion. Still, I believe my model is a fair analogy and as ki seems to embody energy and interact with other forms, it stands to reason ki must fit snuggly into a future version of The Standard Model.

In keeping with this, we know matter can be transformed into photons - the very famous E=mc2 mass-energy equivalence (total energy is the rest mass times the speed of light squared) governing how this conversion occurs. Ki can do the same, covert into both photons _and_ matter. Intent can therefore be effectively solidified, even into matter that appears lifelike. Ki can even rearrange and reconstruct matter in some cases, using particular transformations and techniques that would otherwise appear to break our current understanding of energy conservation. Even the concept of teleportation, which without ki is limited to making copies of small objects rather than transferring the matter itself is made much more palatable with ki. Ki-based teleportation instead deconstructs matter into intent and it is the intent that moves instantaneously through the ki field, providing an exact reconstruction of a person at the destination without halting their consciousness. This solves the ethical issue of whether a teleported "reconstruction" of a person truly is the same person; it is if using ki, as the full intent, the entire being of the person, has been transferred and the body's state reconstructed completely.

A note - ki does not explain every physics-breaking happenstance in the Universe. There is of course still magic, yet another mysterious force of nature that I dare not touch given the sheer lack any semblance of an underlying ruleset it seems to have. This is not something I say lightly. I have thought extensively about the magic I have been exposed to and even had performed on me, but I am not a magic user and I've had to come to terms with my ineptitude in this field. I hope one day magic users will be as forthcoming in explaining their craft as we are attempting to be with ki - when that day comes I'll be first to buy the book. There are magic techniques that manipulate ki as a consequence without the user being an explicit ki-user, the art of transformation taught at the Shapeshifting Academies for example. But there aren't many techniques that can use ki to consequently cause magic to occur (the fusion dance being one). This may indicate some form of hierarchy between the two, but I cannot be certain.

The total genki requirement of a body is dependent on a number of factors - size, level of forward planning required (bacteria are merely reactive, we on the other hand adjust ourselves in anticipation) and physical exertion to name a few. Using genki for more than just carrying intent is a natural ability for other species in the Universe; some xeno-animals flying purely through ki-use for example. Earthlings, whilst highly emotional and sensitive to ki due to high socialisation and therefore possessing great potential, naturally have a very low power level due to lack of use otherwise. At the other extreme, some lifeforms in the Universe have been using ki-skills for so long the ability to use ki becomes an evolutionary pressure in itself.

Evolutionary pressures can yield some wonderful results. In the animal kingdom on Earth the ability to eat the highest and therefore less sought after leaves on trees meant the giraffe never went hungry. The giraffes with the longest necks were more likely to survive and reproduce, driving the length of the next generation of necks upwards at the cost of other luxuries (the ability to maintain dignity when drinking from a watering hole, for example). I am thinking of one particular case of evolutionary competition driving ki-energy levels upwards in a species.

In a previous section I explained how ki is taught within different cultures and mentioned the warrior race of Saiyans. They'd teach ki was to be used to dominate other species and as a show of strength. As ki can be used to great effect in battle and the use of ki amongst those tempestuous Saiyans was widespread enough, those without the ability to manipulate ki were wiped out. Further, those individuals with a natural higher energy per particle, and thus more energy immediately available to use in battle, were favoured for survival. I've briefly mentioned that amplification of genki requires a calm mind and introspection. Saiyans are not predisposed to self-reflection by any means. Between most Saiyans then the highest unmodified genki would win a fight. And thus the Saiyans inadvertently created an evolutionary pressure on themselves, making future generations into the giraffe equivalent of ki-users, the absurdly high natural ki both a blessing in battle and a curse to maintain.

However, think on this. A Saiyan's genki may dwarf many other species' in the Universe, though thankfully they cannot harness it as an Earthling would. But imagine their potential should they learn to amplify their strength like an Earthling? Wouldn't that be something terrifyingly entertaining to witness? Hm.


	10. 1-7 Ki Particles and Energies p2

_**1.7 - Ki Particles and Energies (part 2)**_

* * *

The idea of a Saiyan not just having a terrifyingly high genki output but also being able to amplify that even further might be a scary prospect to you. After all, I have explained that it is possible with ki to fight, and yes, harm people. And so I'll understand your trepidation when I present the next piece of news.

The few people left in the Universe with Saiyan heritage all reside on Earth, and they are formidable in a fight.

To make matters worse, it is very difficult to tell the difference between a Saiyan and anthropoidal Earthling by appearance alone, though I guarantee you you've seen one before.

Full-blooded Saiyans have stiff, thick, usually black hair, dark brown eyes and a natural disposition towards low body fat and dense musculature (though not unnecessarily hypertrophic), all of which aren't out of the usual for Earthlings. They are long-sighted, only needing corrective lenses for detailed work, but long-sightedness is not that unusual either. They have sharper hearing, hearing marginally higher frequencies than Earthlings and a far more sensitive sense of smell than anthropoids. You won't catch them out on that though, they are used to a barrage of sounds and smells and know not to stand out by commenting.

Unusually Saiyans keep their youthful appearance until very late, being physically thirty until the age of eighty or so and then ageing rapidly (half-blooded Saiyans stay young until fifty at least and counting). On more than one occasion Saiyan and Earthling couples have been mistaken for parent and child, or father and son as brothers, which is particularly awkward for them. Saiyans _can_ possess a prehensile tail, covered in brown fur and reaching below the calf (much like a capuchin or squirrel monkey tail) which would be a give-away, but no-one alive with Saiyan heritage has one currently as the transformation they can induce is particularly cumbersome. Sometimes Saiyans even appear blonde-haired and blue-eyed through another transformation I shall also detail later, though you'd be hard-pressed to find a Saiyan transforming like this in public view - in the past few decades, at any rate. For the time being I leave it as an exercise to the reader to guess why I'm sure everyone's seen a Saiyan before.

But there's one part of a Saiyan's _behaviour_ that is difficult to hide; their eating habits. Ki energy is created from energy released from food. The combination of a Saiyan's naturally higher level of physical exertion and their constant readiness for battle requiring a huge genki output both necessitate a terrifyingly huge appetite.

When I say Saiyans can eat a lot, I mean _a lot_. A standard anthropoidal man needs around two thousand calories a day with normal activity levels. The same person as an athlete in peak condition and maximising their training will need to consume nine thousand calories a day. Saiyans need on average those nine thousand calories just to tick over, twelve thousand if training hard with ki. In addition, a typical Earthling has enough glycogen stores (sugar stores) in the muscles and liver to last around a day before they need to eat again without breaking down their muscle protein and fat for energy. Saiyans carry very little body fat but are still able to eat their fill and store energy for longer, for around six days should they need to, in that distant past tiding them over between hunts. They can eat the calories required in one (long, but not as long as you'd hope) sitting should the food be available, rounding out at a mind-boggling _seventy_ thousand calories. Even when not feasting, twelve thousand calories a day is like eating every meal six times over.

As you can imagine, that level of food needs a lot of processing and the Saiyan body is equipped to deal with it. They have stronger teeth and as you'd expect a stronger bite, combined with the ability to grow them back should one be knocked out or damaged. There's a myth found in all corners of the Universe that a Saiyan's bite is so powerful they can chew rocks and glass. From accidental experimentation we can say chalk is a definite yes, but surprisingly no one is willing to test that further.

To digest starches quickly to create sugar for an explosive energy boost, Saiyan saliva has a higher concentration of amylase. When Earthlings eat starches food can taste sweet due to this enzyme after a few chews - in that regard rices, potatoes and the like are extremely sweet to Saiyans. However, they usually swallow their food so fast the saliva is less used as a flavour enhancer and instead pure lubrication to get food down the throat. To compensate they are quicker to salivate when presented with food. Baby Saiyans therefore are dribble machines and make very sticky toddlers.

Their stomach muscles can squeeze tighter and contract every five rather than twenty seconds (and this increased frequency of gut movement is reflected throughout the GI tract). The stomach itself can distend far further than an Earthling's should a Saiyan need to take on a vast amount of food. The acidity in their stomach is far higher, a pH 10-50 times that of an Earthling, settling around a pH of 1. The acid is strong enough to digest small bones that may be swallowed in a Saiyan's hurry to eat and to create the perfect environment to digest the higher protein levels Saiyans require. Dealing with the increased level of fats and proteins also requires a higher concentration of bile from the gall bladder. This is readily apparent if a Saiyan vomits - which is a vanishingly rare occurrence as it would take something completely vile to trigger an upset stomach, though a drunk or injured Saiyan is more than capable of doing so. The infamous "carrots" found in vomit are actually pieces of half-digested food taken from just beyond the stomach that has been coloured with bile - Saiyan vomit then is usually a more vibrant orange.

(I probably shouldn't have included that tidbit but it was an interesting observation I seemed to have underlined heavily in my notes, so I feel obliged to my past self to include it.)

Due to the volume of food processed a Saiyan's muscles and liver can hold far higher quantities of glycogen than an Earthling's. The Saiyan liver is also larger for this reason (with a slightly smaller, more efficient small intestine to compensate for space), big enough in fact to convince Earth doctors the Saiyan has severe cirrhosis of the liver and requires immediate treatment - one of many reasons they tend not to attend public medical services. Saiyans can tolerate a higher range of blood sugar levels and rest above an average for Earthlings - their levels seemingly hyperglycemic at times which would cause blindness and more for Earthings at prolonged exposure. Their liver processing speed means it is exceedingly difficult to get a Saiyan drunk (ethanolic drinks existing in Saiyan culture as on Earth and so they possess the correct enzymes to process it). Thankfully it is not impossible, one just needs a very potent drink downed very quickly and the effect would hit fast, though not last as long. Whiskey-glass shots are their best bet for a short black-out.

This higher toxin tolerance also extends to some medicines. A higher dose of medication is needed to maintain an effective concentration in the body as the blood is cleaned quicker. This is a problem as some doses will have no effect on those with Saiyan heritage and hospitals will not prescribe "dangerous levels" of antibiotics and other drugs. Even with medical professionals who understand some Saiyan biology (and I hope that number has multiplied after this), dosing for a Saiyan is difficult, so like most people Saiyans would prefer not to get sick in the first place. Luckily their anti-bodies are quick to work, and for physical injuries they are quick to scar and heal. Noticing a bruise blossoming and fading within a day or two on someone is a strong indication they might be a Saiyan.

These adaptations to cope with a traditionally rough-and-tumble life are all very well and good until you try to hide on a world that can't know of your existence.

I suppose the reason why I'm going into so much depth on Saiyan biology is partly for the enduring medical record, partly through my own scientific curiosity and partly - well, mostly really - because I _am_ Saiyan. Half Saiyan half Earthling, to be precise. Surprise! Please don't be alarmed or upset at the deception, I _did_ try to leave some hints as we went. It's where the name "the Great Saiyaman" comes from, even. …Maybe I'm being a little too flippant in my disclosure but experience has taught me there's no easy way to approach this.

My heritage is what I was alluding to in the previous section with my family's long distance vision; Saiyan eyes were born for fighting and chasing, not for reading and dexterous work. It was only in the past few hundred years Saiyans were gifted advanced technology by other aliens and had a use for regular close-up work (maintenance and the like). With interplanetary travel open to them most followed their calling and became mercenaries, so goes the story. In truth though, planet Vegeta was subjugated by an empire builder named Freeza whose personal strength and menace scared even the Galactic King and their forces (you didn't think there was interplanetary travel without a bureaucratic system in place already, did you?).

Freeza ran roughshod across most of the galaxy, his "company" purging planets of human life and selling the minerals and other life to the highest bidder. Only if he found a use for the human lifeforms did he allow them to live until they outgrew their usefulness, and his personal army of Saiyans, growing stronger with every fight and whispering of the legendary Super Saiyan who would rise up to depose Freeza and his family, eventually became a liability to his pseudo-rule. Thus he personally destroyed all but a few in a single planetary explosion. I know realtors aren't much liked on Earth but be thankful they don't hold a candle to Freeza.

Three remained in his employ as soldiers. In reality they were trophies, one of whom was the crown Prince - Prince Vegeta. One Saiyan named Kakarot - and we're not sure why when everyone was ordered to stay on planet - was sent on a purging mission as a more than capable toddler just before planet Vegeta's destruction. He ended up on Earth and lucky for our home suffered a head injury and forgot his mission before he could do any damage. He becoming a docile, sweet (yet terrifyingly strong) boy, adopted by a martial artist named Son Gohan and given the name Son Goku. He grew up in the great mountains and forests of the south-east, living on his own after his Grampa Gohan passed away.

He lived in isolation until 14 when a 16 year old Bulma, daughter of Dr Brief, stumbled across him one summer. I say stumbled - more she drove into him, he threw her and the car across the road in retaliation and she tried to shoot his surprisingly bullet-proof head in self-defence but… semantics. They travelled the world together after that. The world owes a lot to their chance meeting.

Whilst Bulma and the friends Dad made journeying over the next few years definitely noticed there was something special about him (he even trained with the Earth's then appointed Guardian, a Namekian named Kami - again you don't have to believe me), people just assumed he was a strange kid. Some Zoomorphic people or Teratoids do indeed have the strength of many and, due to the tail Dad sported in his teen years, everyone assumed that was the case with him.

It wasn't until I was four years old the truth came out, and only then when my Uncle, one of Freeza's remaining Saiyan henchmen, had finally arrived to collect my father. He was expecting a planet cleared of human life and was far from expecting Dad to have settled down with a native. As I explained before the situation was difficult, and… it did not end well. A year later the other two Saiyans arrived and Vegeta barely left with his life, even then only due to my father's cloyingly good graces.

When we visited Namek to help our friends later that year, we jarringly found ourselves on the same side as him against Freeza, caught up in his revenge fantasy of becoming the hailed legendary Super Saiyan. I have only one or two memories of Vegeta's first visit to Earth and a handful from Namek, and all of them involve him threatening or attempting to kill me in some fashion. After Freeza's defeat at the hand of my father (who did so by ascending to the state of a super saiyan) and revenge for his people somewhat sated (even if not by his own hands), Vegeta stayed on Earth to terrorise the staff of Capsule Corporation instead. It took him a number of years but as I said, the scars faded and the rough edges were sanded over. Though as expected his moral code remained extremely Saiyan, protecting himself and his team (his family) above all else.

Of course if you've been following, this means everyone's favourite CEO Trunks is half alien. And a prince*. We're taking bets on how these revelations will skew his very dedicated yet consistently rebuffed fanbase. Either way, luckily for him I don't think the news voids his "Sexiest Man on Earth" award due to the technicality that he is _on_ Earth, though I'm not sure the organisers intended the meaning to be stretched quite that far. Bra also has the same heritage as well as Goten. Pan is therefore a quarter Saiyan and was the only one for the first 18 years of her life, a difference I know she was painfully aware of due to endless teasing. The Saiyan genes have a strong influence and she was without any lack of ability, much to the surprise of those forces who would dismiss her as irrelevant when they came to Earth. She, like the rest of us, is proud of both her heritages and often makes a point to identify herself as "mostly Earthling, actually" when humiliating opponents. Now there are three other quarter Saiyans (with one on the way), easing Pan's complex to a degree. Still, call her point-two-five or quarter-pint and she _will_ have you in a headlock.

*(and so are Goten and I on my mother's side, I have been loudly reminded. A touch of jealously there, brother?)

 _[ Figure 1 ]_

 _[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/169633764812/1point7p1#one ]_

 _When most people speak of preloading, I believe they're referring to alcohol before a night on the town. In our households preloading food is part of the daily routine to appear normal._

As you may expect both Trunks' and Bra's days are well-monitored due to their celebrity and VIP status so I forgive you if you find it difficult to believe one - they are part Saiyan and two - are even ki-users, involving themselves in battles with enemies the world has never heard of. It's a valid doubt to have to be sure, but that is a testament to how careful they've been. Maintaining the deception involves keeping the same level of balance, secrecy and preplanning I've had to employ in my own life.

When I first attended high school, having not really spent time around people my own age, I was told by my mother and Auntie Bulma to be extremely measured in my strength and how I chose to use it. I understood what a normal level of strength _was_ , I could just not use my ki which is simple enough to do. But after years of summoning it ad hoc much of its use was automatic to me, and a few times I caused… surprise… in sports classes. It set me on edge. The stares were not appealing. I did not want to be hounded about my abilities, and I desperately did not want to be cornered into revealing my heritage lest my family suffer. The Great Saiyaman outfit was designed by Bulma so I could prevent crime and keep my identity a secret, which was both extremely stylish and a load off the mind.

There was one part of my life that I couldn't suppress or wear a mask for though - mealtimes. When the normal lunch for a student would be six hundred calories at a maximum, I'd eat a full meal instead, citing the "long commute time" from home causing me to skip breakfast. In reality I'd have a huge meal in the morning and evening and feast at the weekends. I performed the same routine during undergraduate and grad school, living at home for the former, and then moving in with Videl in Satan City for the latter. Working at the University now I have my own office and so can eat as much as possible in those few quiet moments a professor can find. Even at conferences I'll sneak off and fly home for second evening meals. By being this meticulous and forward thinking, my ridiculous eating habits have mostly gone unremarked and heritage under the radar.

You'd think my masterminding paved the way for the kids, who were all eager to integrate into the world rather than purely fight like our fathers. _You'd think_. Alas, they didn't heed my advice to the letter.

Years later, with a stubbornness I'd never born witness to before nor since, Trunks and Goten decided to go to college. Together. In a halls of residence. And be _completely_ independent. Well, more, _Trunks_ decided they were going to start college together and be roommates, himself taking a year out so Goten could catch up. I'm not sure how much of a say _Goten_ had in the matter but he didn't seem to mind. I'm also not sure what offhand remark spurred their decision to live independently, though I guess it was mostly Trunks' strength of will. However once Goten has a plan in mind nothing will persuade him otherwise and in that vein they're both as bad as each other. By all accounts it was a preposterous idea. Even ignoring their dietary requirements, Trunks' food had, until then, been prepared by chefs. Goten had a little more experience, helping Mom prepare those daily banquets and cooking over campfires, but she did inadvertently sabotage his culinary education by refusing to let him do any of the heavy-duty stove cooking. The boys were extremely insistent they were to be left to their own devices however, which meant 24/7 proximity to people who would not understand their eating habits. How do you hide your wild appetite from a dorm full of people?

 _[ Figure 2 ]_

 _[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/169633764812/1point7p1#two ]_

 _Being snapped with your cheeks full is pretty common for Saiyans._

Whatever hair-brained scheme they'd concocted together quickly fell apart and they would stock up with visits from home, using Capsule Corp's gravity training room every day and somehow always snagging an extremely large breakfast on the way out. Although it did get serious in the end. Trunks, being the more careful of the two around others due to the increased scrutiny he was under, fell into malnutrition attempting to keep up appearances and passed out on more than one occasion. Eventually they had to forego their independence somewhat. Bulma developed a disgusting (but extremely helpful) calorific and nutritionally balanced drink that could tide them over between meals, and they would visit home more often for a real meal, much to Mom's genuine delight. The drink isn't as depressing as it sounds by the way - Saiyans eat so quickly it's not often we savour food unless we think about it. Though we do have favourite foods. In fact, in the course of trying to provide for himself the sweet treats of home he missed (the strawberry daifuku that would disappear from the treat box as soon as made, no matter the number), Goten developed a knack for making sweet and baked treats. And considering that's now the crux of his entire business, college was a good idea after all - even if the only use he gets out of his engineering major is fixing his machines.

I know, I know. "What has this got to do with me learning how to use ki?" On the surface not much. Instead I wanted to take time to impress upon you that whilst Saiyans are powerful and don't have the best of reputations in the Universe, the new generation is primarily concerned with _defending you_. We could take a back seat and not fight for the planet or leave to hide elsewhere, but we don't. To be able to train to risk our lives time and time again yet try and live normal, fulfilling lives in peacetime, we just want to be left to our own devices. The same goes for our non-Saiyan, ki-using friends. We don't need to be studied or prodded - I've done that for you. Nor do we need to be contained for your safety; you know we aren't interested in world domination otherwise we'd be on the throne already (Capsule Corp an Earthling invention). I understand you might be scared; what sounded like a fun foray into making fireworks or floating five feet off the ground has moved swiftly to talk of planetary destruction. I can assure you though, right now we're much more afraid of you than you are of us.

One of the few times I distinctly remember cursing my heritage was when Pan was nine months old. She fell sick with a heavy fever, as babies that age are wont to do. Now, received wisdom is to dose with acetaminophen (or ibuprofen) which act to reduce pain and fever, and these drugs will work for Saiyans, too. At that time however Pan was still growing and her liver function still ramping up; we hadn't taken a recent measurement to estimate the dosage she'd need. We didn't even have precedence to go on - she was the first quarter Saiyan after all, for all we knew she could have a more Earthling physiology and would overdose. All we could do was give her enough for an full-Earthling baby and hope there'd be some impact, but over the course of the night her temperature rose further. Seeing anyone sick is distressing but knowing your child is in pain and you can do nothing, no matter how much of a superhero you are… "heartbreaking" doesn't do the feeling justice. As a parent you'd do anything.

So I made a rash decision. We took the risk in the small hours of the night and ran her to the hospital, at least that way they could monitor drug levels in her bloodstream. We were seen quickly but of course with a lack of other symptoms our panic was dismissed as new parent syndrome, she didn't look _that_ bad. They wouldn't admit her. Even spouting all the medical jargon I'd been absorbing at grad school didn't budge them. They administered the next dose of the same drug and told us to come back should her fever get worse or she show other symptoms, all said with kindness and reassurance. They couldn't feel her ki ebbing and paling. Then one passing doctor, sensing something, asked if we had any reason to believe she needed special care.

That early morning in ER I stood there, my child for all I knew and feared dying in my arms, Videl's grip urging me to be brave and the parent in me screaming to do something - and I said nothing. It would have been so simple. I could have proved our alien blood by just transforming, the doctors would have listened and done all they could to help her I'm sure. I'm ashamed to say though fear of the repercussions, the idea of my daughter healthy but incarcerated for the world's safety, us chased away from the only home we knew, of being perceived as frightening or being used and having our hands tied quite literally should a threat arrive on planet - _those_ fears kept my silence. It would have been _so simple_ to ask for help. But my resolve had faltered, and I turned and left for West City.

It felt almost beyond luck then when I arrived at Bulma's and by sheer coincidence a rare magical means of abating Pan's fever was present. I'm not one to believe in fate or destiny, nor am I usually superstitious. However in that moment of sheer joy and relief at seeing my daughter laugh again I felt a creeping sensation that grew on the calmer flight home - the Universe was saving my daughter not for me but _from_ me. It was as though some great force was opening their hands and grinning manically as I snatched without forethought the fruit I'd been selfishly demanding. I had been granted my wish without need for consequence, but I could not shake the feeling the ease at which I'd got my way would mean I'd find myself alone next time, no matter who my lack of faith in others affected. It would be my hubris reflecting back on myself and others threefold lest I change my attitude.

I learnt my lesson and slowly starting extending trust, making a friend in a doctor from another research group along the corridor and confiding in them all my medical notes. To my surprise they didn't run to the press or summon the government - they were even mortally offended when I asked them to sign the same non-disclosure agreement Bulma gives her closer staff. They're even a co-author on many of the papers that accompany this guide. Years later, when I (mostly) retired the cape and passed the torch to Papayaman, we invited a few police officers the Great Saiyaman had great rapport with for dinner. They were so excited 'he' and Videl (also the Great Saiyaman 2) were married! And again, nothing terrible happened.

They deny it but I know the kids found confidants as they got older, usually accidentally or believing an exception couldn't hurt, and of course Pan has her local students from the Pan Fighting Network who know about her ki-use at least. We've even had journalists sniffing around who were absorbed into the wider circle. Thankfully they understood our situation when explained fully and never published, even pushing the deception at times. Just judging by the prying calls I get every February I'm pretty sure my identity as the Great Saiyaman is an open secret at the Satan City ZTV and ZPress offices, uncovering it being an exercise for the interns.

When you add it all up, folding in the various levels of disclosure spread across a multitude of people, you begin to realise confiding in "a just few" has spiralled and a mailing list might be more time efficient. In fact, we realised it would be fairer on everyone if we drew a line to free people from the absurd silence they've held and well, here we are. This is me, my family and friends. I like to think we're good eggs, we definitely have our flaws but above all else we're _human_. As strange as we are at times, please have faith in us.

A note: There's a chance, however slim, this book has fallen into the hands of those who would do us and the planet harm. First, if you're tracking Saiyans for ancient revenge or for your collection, stop. I'll tell you straight. Don't waste your time smashing up other planets in your hunt, we're all here. Secondly, you're welcome to try your best to use the information presented here to find a weakness and get us to hand the planet over.

But remember this. Better people than you have tried and failed to take this planet. Earth is our home, our _only_ home, and it _is_ defended.

Come and get us.


	11. 1-8 Pressure, Intensity and Power

_**1.8 - Pressure, Intensity and Power**_

* * *

We've covered the creation of genki by combining ki-particles and energy within the centre, and how the body threads the ki-signature and intent through genki. This is all natural behaviour for a lifeform, from single-celled organisms to us.

What follows next is a discussion of the unnatural, the manipulation of the behaviour of the centre through various means to increase or decrease genki output - and how that manifests itself against the effort required to do so. This section is not a tutorial, not yet, as we are still within the realm of academics. But changing the centre's behaviour and the amplification of genki is integral to many of the ki techniques you will want to use in a casual fashion. For those of you who wish to join us in planetary defence these ideas will be _crucial_. Understanding what elements of your own ki you can push the hardest, and which manipulation will give you the biggest gain for the least effort safely, will make your training far more efficient, helping you to become an asset to the planet far sooner.

To begin, some definitions. Many of these have already been referred to in other sections already, though for posterity I am including them all here.

 _[ Figure 1 ]_

 _[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/169901896282/1point8#one ]_

 **Effort:** The combination of concentration, attention and the standard physical energy required to perform a task. Effort as standard incorporates a genki component, as with all actions, but is negligible to other uses of genki. Effort is used as a term to distinguish a particular direction of will and energy expenditure from ki.

 **Base State:** The natural output of ki particles and energy from a person without manipulation or amplification. In battle this definition also encompasses the ki-user's habitual or maximal level of genki amplification, and is clear from context.

 **Flow rate:** The number of particles leaving the centre per second.

 **(Effective) Centre volume:** The volume of the centre if calculated in standard geometry, represented as a sphere. In truth the centre is a point with ki radiating away from it, but to understand transformations and aid visualisation a spherical depiction makes the most sense.

 **(Effective) Surface area:** The surface area of the centre. In base state this is represented as a sphere's surface area and is proportional to the effective volume V^(2/3).

 **Ki particle flux:** Officially defined as the number of ki particles passing through a surface per unit area. If one was measuring the flux at the effective centre surface, the flux would be the flow rate divided by the surface area. Usually the flux is measured some distance from the centre however, and in that case we take an imaginary window and count the number particles passing through it. If the window moved closer, the particle flux would increase.

 **Ki/Ki energy flux:** As above but referring to the energy, also referred to as the ki pressure.

 **Ki particle intensity:** Subtly related to the flux, intensity is the number of particles passing through a surface per unit area, per unit solid angle of the source emitting it. If ki emission is isotropic - that is, the same in all directions - then the intensity is the flux/(4*pi). If it is not, say in the case where ki is being projected in a particular direction like a narrow beam, then the intensity will change as a function of the angle of the observer to the source. I.e. the intensity in the direction of the beam is much higher than another direction.

 **Ki/Ki energy intensity:** As above but referring to the energy.

 **Charge:** A way of referring to the ki energy per particle. Ki particles can possess genki and ki from the field, so sometimes the distinction is made between genki and field-ki charge. This distinction is usually for keeping records of what combination is needed for different techniques rather than casually made. Sometimes the term "charging up" is used when discussing ki-based attacks. That use is conflating two processes, adding genki energy to the focus point of the attack and amplifying that genki. What is being discussed should be apparent by context.

 **Power:** The total energy per unit time. In this case the total energy leaving the body per second, approximated as the flow rate times the average charge. When discussing genki only, this is considered the true base power. Usually the "current power level" refers to the instantaneous measure of energy leaving the body after amplification and is expressed in a galactic standard unit. We never knew what that unit of measurement _was_ when we first started measuring power level, as the scouters we acquired used an alien alphabet and no one ever said the unit (it being obvious by context, apparently). Much later we found from off-planet friends it's called a Barh (singular and plural). We never use it either. In addition we now refer to the log (in base 10) of the number to save repeating all the zeros.

 **Pressure:** The ki pressure is the power per unit surface area at a defined distance. In this case the ki-pressure will increases with decreased distance to the source. This is a strict definition, although confusingly people will conflate pressure with power level - implying a change in pressure at a fixed distance is akin to a change in power level. This is usually the case unless the ki is focussed towards the person measuring. Again, the context provides clues.

Usually "pressure" "power", "power level" and the concept of "charging up" are discussed in battle as realistically the total energy of an enemy and ways to express that are the only concepts that matter, as it is the total energy that will be smacking you in the face pretty soon. However, the ki particle flux and its particular nuances do sometimes come into play.

The natural flow rate and charge varies between people, but the variation is far smaller for the flow rate. As explained previously the centre size and therefore flow rate is, within a species at least, proportional to size. A larger person naturally has a higher flow rate to manage the increased body mass. Even amongst the best ki-users there may only be an increase in the flow rate of ten-fold or so after years and years of training - the real difference training making in maximum charge. But there is at least one person on Earth who does not fit this pattern; to call them an anomaly would be to understate it. For an Earthling this person has a monumental flow rate, the flux of ki particles near them was around fifty times that of every other Earthling their size as a mere child.

I'm speaking of Papayaman.

(I could of course give you his real name. He _has_ told me he doesn't mind, given that we're all giving up our identities to some extent, but from one 'hero to another, I could never commit such a betrayal.)

Now, we superheroes have backstories to make us more palatable to the public. It also helps to simplify the narrative for merchandising, comics, and all manner of paraphernalia, the profits from which are indeed mostly funnelled into environment repair and victim support. Great Saiyaman for example is a man from another planet imbued with great power, which isn't far from the truth. The Shadows are traces of people who died trying to save others, their silent shadows now free from physical constraints and doing the bidding of superheroes to help those they couldn't in life. That story is bittersweet though of course nonsense. But Papayaman's backstory - that he died in childbirth only to be revived on a prayer to the Gods, complete with the strength and magicks of one and a duty to live a pure and selfless life as payment - is eerily accurate.

Many years ago we fought a beast of sorts, a primeval chaos that only knew destruction. It is a convoluted tale that I don't wish to get into now but at the end of the battle (that we accomplished with a surprising number of people's help), Dad decided he enjoyed himself so much he'd like to fight the beast again one day. The rules of the afterlife dictate that one has to be suitably punished and repent one's sins for the soul to be cleansed and enter Heaven, to return eventually to the cycle of reincarnation. However, this beast had no sense of reason and so would not understand the punishment he'd receive, let alone be able to repent. Nothing was said explicitly, but my Dad's wish was granted that day. The beast returned to the world of the living tied to the soul of an innocent Earthling child to live again and be taught love and reason. It was only later we learnt the child was to be still-born, his parents finding his miraculous birth a blessing from the Gods and ancestors, which it was in a sense.

The child grew to be a kind and giving young boy, doing his best to protect his family and provide for his village. We met him when he was ten years old, his untrained power preposterous when enraged, almost Saiyan (without the appetite). Dad immediately upped-sticks to train him in his village, both to eventually have that fight he wanted and to ask him to protect the planet with us, which given his nature the boy readily agreed to.

Whilst the boy who would become Papayaman was the only person with superhuman strength in his village, when a contingent of family and friends regularly reciprocated Dad's visits home we found the locals surprisingly resilient to ki flux, particularly his immediate family. They were never staggered or fatigued by showy demonstrations, much to the kids' disappointment. This was a surprise but on reflection made perfect sense.

The primeval and therefore simple nature of the beast meant it had no need for a high particle charge, the intents it used were simple and destructive. Instead it had a huge particle flow rate to utilise its also vast genki, or used magical techniques to achieve its goals. Some quick calculations showed what whilst the boy did not have exactly the same overwhelming levels the beast had (yet), he was indeed generating a huge flow rate of particles, the intensity feeling as though fifty people were huddled around you. At rest his overall power level wasn't huge, only this flow rate.

The significance? Remember: genki's primary function is to maintain homeostasis within the body. Every time a cell is encountered by a ki particle a check is conducted on both the ki signature then the intent to decide what to do with the energy carried within. If more ki particles are around then more checking is needed to be performed by the cells, and more effort expended this way, causing people to tire quickly. The ability to withstand this barrage improves with exposure. The villagers and his family had grown accustomed to being within auratic contact with the boy, so were able to withstand being around a huge group of us when training, completely unphased. It was a year or so before his debut, when Papayaman left his island for the city, that the trouble started, the previous mere curiosity becoming a thorn in his side.

* * *

 _Age 797 at my home in Mount Paozu, talking over dinner with Pan (18), Bra (17) and Papayaman._

Bra: _I'd say it definitely feels like a presence, you're very… noticeable._

Pan: _Like a crowd of people._

Bra: _Exactly._

Papayaman: _Either way it makes dating really tricky. I've given up for now._

Pan: _Don't say that!_

Gohan: _In what way?_

Papayaman: _People get exhausted just being around me. They'd call it an early night every time. I knew I was being cagey with my life but working with Mr Satan is an interesting enough cover story, right? But then someone passed out into their salad and I realised I can't be_ that _dull._

Gohan: _I take it you tried suppression._

Papayaman: _Yes and it works, but then I get distracted, and if it's because I'm surprised the snapback cracks a glass or something. So embarrassing. I'd rather just be me._

Pan: _Maybe you need to date some fighters? They'd be tougher, get through the evening at least._

Papayaman: _Or someone from home…_

Bra: _Or have a date with someone but they have to stay on the other side of the room._

Papayaman: _And who in their right mind would agree to that?_

Bra: _Like a secret date! Go to the cinema together but sit apart, communicating only through texts at dinner._

Pan: _That's_ stupid _…_

Bra: _Get closer each date, you know? The anticipation of finally spending time together building over the next few dates… and by then they can stand you!_

Papayaman: _Gee, thanks…?_

Bra: _You know what I mean! I'll think of an angle, like, getting to truly know someone through body language alone, maybe even having to work out who you're on the date with - give me two weeks, three tops-_

Papayaman: _You know, I'm not that bothered-_

Bra: _-I'll make it a thing online, wouldn't even be weird to suggest it then!_

Papayaman: _I appreciate the thought but-_

Pan: _No no, don't struggle, that's it -_ you're _her new project and I'm now_ free _._

Bra: _Don't get ahead of yourself, 'Ms Satan' - I still have plans for you -_

* * *

From trial and error Papayaman knows it takes a few days to a week of auratic contact for others to adjust and not tire hugely from being around him. Blind dates are not the best idea in that respect. (I never found out whether he took up Bra's suggestion but I do know she seeded the trend!)

He can reduce his flow rate to make others more comfortable, though it does take concentration and if tied up trying not to spill dinner down a shirt one does forget to suppress. Changing that output, forcing it lower, isn't just a straightforward exchange of effort for results; there's an initially frustrating yet helpful nuance to the procedure.

 _[ Figure 2 ]_

 _[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/169901896282/1point8#two ]_

Changing the flow rate is the only way to reduce power level (short of near-exhaustion). Reducing the flow rate and therefore power level to zero allows one to move undetected in ki-sense, but manipulating to slightly lower levels has its uses. Earthlings and other non-ki-users in the Universe often have a power level of 5-10, or (0.7-1.0 in the new logged way we keep track). Being able to hide amongst those individuals using the bare minimum genki allows a ki-user to act as a decoy in hostage situations or approach off-guard enemies. Even lowering base genki output close to 1000 (3) is enough to fool many opponents into believing you're talented for the planet but no competition and they will dismiss their guard. Saiyans top out at around a base power of 10,000 (4) or so, so suppressing power level by manipulating the flow rate can fool an opponent with ki-sense or a ki-scouter into not taking you seriously enough. A deadly mistake.

The rudimentary scouters owned by Freeza shorted out at power levels higher than around 20,000 (4.3) due to their required sensitivity for finding low power levels on planets to purge. Nowadays the scouters developed on Earth are far more robust and use a prior-based computational model to estimate the base power level of opponents beyond what would be possible through ki sense alone, putting numbers to that gut feeling we get when opponents are holding back. Even better, the technique to vary power level in this very precise fashion was developed (in this galaxy at least) on Earth, as was the ability to sense ki. The knowledge of this planet's talent has spread and so many come anticipating to be surprised, and skilled fighters are developing the techniques themselves now they know it's possible. Still, for the moment we have the upper-hand and we should use that to our advantage where we can.

Broadly, the lower the flow rate you wish the centre to have, the higher the effort required to maintain that rate. However, some flow rates require relatively lower effort than others. Much like the electron exists in energy states that are only allowed by harmonics (1-6), the centre itself responds to harmonics in a similar fashion. Thus there are peaks and troughs that enable one to expend a small amount of effort yet still rest at lower energy levels. These levels are at ½, ¼, 1/8 etc of the total flow rate. One can picture it as though the centre surface is being folded onto itself.

When the fold is perfectly aligned, like in the case of ½ and subsequent ratios, the centre is stable and the effort required to maintain that state comparatively lower. One still needs the effort spare to get to that state however, and so when first practising it will take a lot of effort to breach that first hurdle and settle down into halving the power level. This excess effort required is akin to an "activation energy" for a chemical reaction, where input energy is required as a kickstart. Even when over the hurdle some effort is still required - the body wishes to return to its most stable state and will 'snapback' to the global minimum if given half a chance.

The lower the intended power level the more effort is required to achieve it, not in the least because at power levels tending zero the body will fight your poor decision. The body's reaction is disproportionately strong and I will detail this in the practical section to keep the necessary warnings with the exercise, but suffice to say there is a time-limit of a few hours on complete suppression before passing out.

Changing the particle flow rate to _increase_ power level is another kettle of fish entirely, and can be done in two ways, again by changing the surface area of the centre. The first way, a physical transformation in size, is able to change the volume and surface area of the centre along with it, adhering to the rule of thumb that the required amount of genki output follows body size. Some physical transformations can be relatively subtle, allowing a higher concentration of ki to be focussed in the musculature with increased muscle volume. Others are more drastic, the ki-user literally growing in size by many factors. In this case the amount of ki particles drawn from the ki-field by the centre increases to sustain the output. In addition these large transformations will require genki to trigger, a costly activation energy, and so are utilised with careful consideration. To bypass that cost some transformations use magical means, or the trigger is purely physical utilising outside energy input (electricity, fire, light, someone else's genki) rather than a purely conscious, genki-driven decision to transform.

A second way does not require physical transformation, thus the activation energy is negligible. Yet the increase in flow rate is on the same order of magnitude; doubling, tripling, even tenfold increasing the genki output. The technique is known as the kaioken, developed and taught by a god to my father years ago. Again this technique relies on harmonics - instead of folding the centre surface on itself to decrease the centre surface and volume, the centre surface is warped in multiples, much like the higher harmonics of a vibrating guitar string, increasing the surface area but the volume of the centre crucially remaining the same. As the flow rate from the centre has increased many-fold without a change in centre volume, the centre will exhaust itself far faster than it can replenish. This is dangerous. What's more - this surge in flow triggers, much like Papayaman's problem, an increased need for cells to check ki signatures and intents.

If one was calm, using the kaioken would only cause fatigue. With active and dangerous intents flying around in battle however, cells stutter and break down at high intensities as they ignore vital intents and respond to ones they shouldn't, causing internal damage. So whilst this technique has a huge gain in power level for a short time, it is extremely risky.

Other methods are far better suited to increasing overall instantaneous power levels and these affect the charge per particle instead of the particle flux. With adequate training to gain a considerable pool of genki available to use, adding charge per particle can greatly raise one's power level, particularly when combined with amplification. The downside? Whilst exhaustion of ki particles can be recovered through a short rest, ki energy can only recover through eating.

Like when reducing power level by manipulating the particle flow rate, there are optimal spots with comparatively lower effort required to hold that ki particle output. Specifically there are two components, and experience and training can change the shape of both of them.

 _[ Figure 3 ]_

 _[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/169901896282/1point8#three ]_

The first component is a steady (monotonic) increase in effort required to summon more and more genki. It rises faster than linear - that is, on average, one can near maximum power output with half maximum effort, and that final boost takes a lot more effort. Then there is a second, oscillating component superimposed on the first that again relates to harmonics, where some genki outputs are easier to achieve than others. These two combine in such a way that, at the limit of concentration and effort, it is less a sliding scale and more a series of obvious "levels" one can reach as notches, much liked lowering particle flow rates. Eventually one reaches a wall with effort. With experience and training of the mind however the monotonic increase will lower, that wall becomes surmountable and, with one huge push of effort, a breakthrough made. Each new level reached is a step-change in power. Practise, training and familiarity will make those levels stretch further. Above all, patience will bring you those breakthroughs. Limits are therefore, for the most part, temporary.

Some transformations do not affect just the centre but the charge per particle, too. One in particular is the Super Saiyan technique. Tapped into using overwhelming emotional responses rare for pure-blooded Saiyans to have, and recreated in calmer states through focussing energy on the upper spine to disrupt ki-flow through the body in a similar manner, the transformation utilises the ridiculous level of usually wasted genki available to Saiyans to increase their power level by a factor of fifty. Further improvements to the state increase it to a factor of one hundred and then two hundred, although the latter in particular, Super Saiyan 3, is so intense it forces a very noticeable partial physical transformation and is so depleting with a huge activation energy it is very rarely worth the trouble.

An increase in ki energy pressure, whatever the method, is completely useless without interaction with the physical world. Ki can interact with other ki of course, and living cells are primed to do so, too. But to use ki to fly or to move inanimate objects it must truly interact with the world. In battle or training then ki is usually primed with an intent that will allow it to do so, a so-called 'push' intent. This is one of the most basic instructions that can be modified and added to with a moment's notice.

A push intent involves ki interacting with the physical world and that must be performed through the electromagnetic force. Touching your fingers together feels like two solid objects clashing, but in reality it is the electromagnetic repulsion of the negatively charged electrons around atoms in your fingers that prevent your fingers passing through each other. That electromagnetic interaction is mediated by photons, the energy and momentum transferred between electrons by this particle. Thus a realised push intent is a conversion of ki energy into an electromagnetic one, able to impart that energy into a momentum and therefore physical force through photons.

The required readiness of the push intent does however spill over at times, ki picking up on the ki-users anticipation and going ahead to perform an unstructured push when it was supposed to be waiting for fuller instruction. This is common and expected, though with practise can be reduced. As a ki-user's power level increases this spillover will grow to the point a fluorescence is visible to the naked eye, the previously invisible aura now partially visible as a glow around the ki-user. The unguided push intent, without direction, attempts to push equally in all directions. With the ground in the way ki is bounced up so there is an overall upwards flow in the auratic glow. Further, even when the push is calm, the constant movement of ki against air without a direction causes a convective heat when ki is kept close, and the physically manifested ki will appear to rise like smoke. Together these two effects cause a flame-like appearance to the visible aura that does not follow the true near-spherical distribution of genki underneath.

The colours of this visible aura are not linked to the subtleties of the ki signature as detected with ki-sense as one would expect. Instead the spectrum of fluorescence is tied more to the species ki signature itself, the intent, and any compounding effects of transformations. For example - whilst Pan is red-green in ki-sense, I know myself to be more red-orange and Vegeta's family have blue base, our and other Earthling's genki is white in appearance. That is, genki is releasing photons across the entire spectrum, combining to appear white.

Papayaman, with his relative imbalance in flow rate to power, has a pinkish tinge to his reflecting the lower energy levels of ki per particle, as though the spectrum has been shifted ever so slightly to the red (and therefore lower energy) end. The previously mentioned kaioken technique induces a far redder glow to the aura. With so many particles forced through the surface some end up with relatively far too little charge as the body struggles to keep up, causing a double-peak in the spectrum. One can think of this as analogous to incomplete combustion; the higher the kaioken level the redder the aura. Some species have a peak surrounding bluer colours and appear purple, and other species and transformations like the Super Saiyan transformation are yellow, indicating a tighter spectrum around a central wavelength. Note, the spectrum's width and skew is not directly linked to a charge per particle, in that doubling of the charge won't shift the colour by the same level to the blue end of the light spectrum, it is more the mix of ki signature and transformation can flavour the particular push (and other) intent's outputs. However in base form the colour can give some relative indication of genki charge per particle.

The visible aura, whilst technically a waste of energy can act as a form of intimidation, especially against those with poor ki-sense. Although for those with training, a lack of visible aura when all ki-sense is indicating your opponent is a well of power is the far more terrifying prospect as it belies the level of ki-control that individual must possess. Both the optical and ki senses provide useful information about the depth of a fellow ki-user's abilities.

Being able to see your own aura is an exciting prospect, but for the average Earthling this will not occur with the basic manipulations here; the change in genki output only an order of magnitude or so at a (sustainable) maximum for newer students and therefore insufficient.

 _Amplifying_ genki however, using genki to access ki from that ever permeating field in the Universe and control it, _that_ is where the greatest physics-breaking increases in power come from and what we shall investigate next.


	12. 1-9 The Ki-Field, Yuuki and Shouki

_**1.9 The Ki-Field, Yuuki and Shouki**_

* * *

I could hypothetically perform every technique remaining in this textbook with genki alone. To illustrate - I can draw it from around my centre and aura with my breath, coax it up through my head and arms and focus it into the palm of overlapping hands in front of my head - the exact flow timed to beats ingrained by breathing a word. I can utilise all the righteous anger and desperation I'm feeling to bolster the ki with the intent to push away and explode. Done. A fully realised 'Masenko'. Anyone could do that with all the fundamentals in place. With genki alone though, especially if you're new to ki manipulation, you'd be lucky to blow a breeze. What you need is to amplify your power. You need to touch the ki-field.

In some ways the ki-field is similar to the electromagnetic field, others the gravitational field and spacetime itself, and in further ways different from both completely. All physical objects have constant connections to the electromagnetic field with light impinging on them and the interactions of atoms within the objects themselves mediated through photons, too. Anything with mass interacts gravitationally, warping spacetime through its mere existence. In that vein all living beings have a connection to the ki-field - the centre drawing from it and genki fading away to it. One can't necessarily experience the ki-field in the way we experience the other fields that form our reality, ki itself acting as a mediator of thought, intention and energy rather than a force onto itself, so one may like to consider it another plane of existence. But it maps onto our own reality well enough that the connections between living beings and their effect on the field can become for all intents and purposes visible.

Ki naturally exists separated into particles and pure energy, the former acting as vessels or seeds for energy and the latter an unstructured soup. It is stable this way, happy (if one could attribute an emotion to a fundamental building block of the Universe, of course). The act of bringing these two together, parcellating ki into self contained-packages with signatures and programming an intent, is an act of ordering. Whilst the physics of ki greatly differs from the fundamental forces we currently fully (or at least, "fully") understand, the Universe is consistent in that it loathes order. Disorder, or entropy, is always increasing throughout the Universe as a whole. Whilst constructing order reduces entropy in one particular sense (building a tower of books), these upticks in order are always balanced by an increase in disorder elsewhere and always increases over time (the dissipated energy used to build that tower).

As disorder and entropy must always increase then, genki never persists. The information strung together in genki - the ki signature and intent, the thoughts that encompass _us_ as a person and our sensations, emotions and will - will eventually break down in places. The thoughts stutter as the energy is dragged away from the particle and eventually it all fades back to the noise before it can be transformed into another form of energy.

What if that unused ki energy could be recovered and transformed again? It does still exist, as do those ki particles, falling into the background of the Universe as separate entities: the ki-field. I find it more helpful to think of this field in analogous terms; it helps with my own visualisation when interacting with it. The following makes sense to me although I'm sure you'll invent your own visual shorthand in time.

Think of the ki energy as an ever-rising lake, the ki particles like an impenetrable layer of reeds floating on top, locking you away from the water below. You exist in a boat floating across the surface of this lake. You need ki, you need to drink. Yes, you have your own bottle of water and can use a hollow reed to act as a straw for the bottle, but what if you're still thirsty? You can't reach down into the lake passed the reeds with your hands, nor stick your face in and drink; the almost non-existent gaps between the reeds make this impossible. Luckily you already have a reed. Thread it through a gap, effectively tricking the reeds into letting you pass and you'll be able to take a sip that way. We may lose some bottled water in clumsiness, but the gain in water we can potentially make will be significant.

This combination of a lake of ki energy with unused ki particle reeds on top (or 'closer' to us forming a barrier of sorts, if we think in higher dimensions) form the ki-field. Our centres have contact with the surface at all times as it is scooping up those particles to assist in parcellation of the ki-energy we are creating, and we have a tenuous connection to the field as our ki breaks down and adds itself to that lake. Those two connections, one upwards and one downwards, allow us to find the field with our own mind and, as well as a few other neat tricks, help us perform the manipulation necessary to amplify our genki.

Using the genki we have already parcellated we can punch through the barrier of ki-particles with our own, the field accepting the deception, then hold the genki down to gather more field-ki (or banoki) energy to itself before reeling it back again. Some genki is used to perform this as the action requires an intent to do so, and how successful you are depends on your experience and your state of mind (more on the latter soon), but through this technique we are in one sense amplifying the ki we have available to us.

Of all the manipulations of genki one can choose, amplification unlocks the greatest gain in energy and it will be essential to master should you wish to partake in seemingly impossible feats. Amplifying enough genki energy can take a push intent from blowing a breeze to cracking mountains. From subtle negative social cues to guarding against ballistics. From imperceptible signals telling your foot to cushion your next step to surviving hypersonic-to-zero slams into the ground. These enhancements of natural phenomena will be crucial to perform for your own safety and so it is imperative you learn to amplify genki as soon as we finish the basics, lest you exhaust yourself continuing your training.

There is a point I glossed over in the past and I do wonder whether you noticed. I have described how the aura is used in a social setting and therefore can be perceived and even used by other people. If someone is within auratic contact they are easily detectable. I also spent a substantial amount of time describing how ki appears at great distances. When I perceive the ki signatures of Namekians from a number of light years away, am I in auratic contact then? A back of the envelope calculation says "highly unlikely" - for any source of energy radiating equally in all directions, the energy intensity falls proportional to the inverse-square. Further, the energy signature degrades over time and so in reality the fall-off is faster than this. So the Namekian genki would have faded away long before reaching here, and even if that wasn't the case and the auratic genki was travelling at the speed of light (it doesn't, it meanders far slower) the information would _still_ take a number of years to reach Earth.

Why is it then I can detect what is going on on planet New Namek right now? Whilst the idea of a lake of ki is a visualisation aid, the analogy does extend a little further. Like a lake, disturbing the surface will create ripples. As the centre works and other energy fades back, this creates detectable ripples in the ki-field. The physics of the ki-field behaves a little differently to the more tangible fields, in that the natural speed limit does not exist at this lower level. The field _must_ have a size - as every point in space has a corresponding point for the concept of direction and distance to be understood when detecting these ripples - but information travels instantaneously across the ki-field. It is the specific ripples or vibrations life causes on the field that we detect when using this long-range version of ki-sense.

The ripples are driven by the ordered information carried within the genki; if there was no information then there would be no ripple as it would be indistinguishable from the noise of the field. Usually we detect the ki signature, that one strong pattern of information embedded in every packet of genki. Occasionally very strong intents or emotions can be felt too, especially if they are simple and the entire being of the person is focussed on that one thought. A related note: If one is used to long-range ki-sense and regularly equating it with someone's ki signature only, one can sometimes fall into the trap of forgetting the ki-field can carry other information, too. Thus when someone is behaving very differently - filled with rage, confidence, their entire mind is resolved, often when they have suddenly become a lot stronger and the vibrations follow suit - it can feel as though their ki-signature has changed, sometimes to the point they aren't immediately identifiable.

Accessing the lake of ki does not come for free, although experience and a calm mind will lower the cost. Following your decaying ki down into the field costs genki. Gathering ki from the field to use costs time and therefore more genki. One can offhand think of this process as a literal amplification of genki yes, but in truth there is a subtle difference between mere amplification of power (say, with just increasing genki output from the centre) and the amplification from drawing a huge energy from the ki-field. Your ki is brought close to the field and effectively punches through to reach that underlying lake. From there the first part of genki is spent instructing the ki signature to spread out and thread itself through what it can, pulling the new ki back in before it is withdrawn. The longer one leaves genki in contact with field, the more ki can be gathered. The efficiency at gathering ki increases with experience, but even the best ki-users will still take their time when necessary to use as much genki as they can, and to amplify as long as possible. Now there is a bundle of extra ki wrapped within that ki signature, ready to be transformed by the intent into whatever form is needed.

Unlike other ki boosting techniques this new ki component is unordered, noisy, and without ki signature or intent itself. This leads to a problem - how _does_ one get it to behave? Genki has the ki signature and an initial intent (whether the full intent or a partially complete instruction that is designed to be added to) set at the centre surface. With pure genki, where the unordered energy reserve is small or non-existent compared to the intent, a chain reaction of instruction travels fast. Pure genki then is very responsive and the intent manipulation efficient. The opposite is true in the case of combinations of genki and field-ki. What little genki remains must control the rest of the ki. For all practical purposes, very complicated intents can be extremely difficult to control as the message in the intent to, say, use ki energy to change direction of a blast, propagates very slowly outward through the field-ki. Thus field-ki heavy attacks are relatively sluggish in response. More commonly, these attacks are imbued with simple, complete intents like a pure push, meaning only one instruction need travel through the ki and nothing more.

There are two ways to improve the responsiveness of the ki mix. The first is to convert less genki to field-ki so the ratio is more favourable. This is an immediate fix, although your technique will not be as strong as there is less ki available overall to convert to your chosen energy type. As the amplification provided from moving from genki to field-ki is so great, this can lead to a significant reduction in power. The other way is to thread genki very carefully through the ki. The ability to lace ki efficiently takes experience. it involves repelling those constructed strands of genki away from each other to spread them out maximally - all in the mind's eye, of course. I'll explain how to do this correctly in a later section. With correctly threaded genki, intent can reach all parts of ki faster and the remaining genki can control the ki efficiently.

That said, the most effective way to use your ki in battle changes moment to moment, technique to technique. It is not just a case of transforming all genki to field-ki and firing - enough genki must remain after conversion to allow ki to be instructed. With no genki left, it'll all fade away.

In practicality converting genki to field ki in fluctuations can be a mess and so the amplification is continually performed at a default level, almost subconsciously in battle, and adjustments made from at point. The ki is then held a while in the aura before being reassigned an intent. It takes complex management and strategy to use ki to the best of your ability. Pure brute force can only get you so far.

Forward planning then can tip the balance in your favour. One useful trick is to build in unexpected changes in situation. Timing a transformation or holding back a fraction of power to lull your opponent into a false sense of security can give you the upperhand towards the end if your opponent has miscalculated and is nearly spent. The moment you commit to the final tussle though, usually a great clashing of ki, you are hoping with every fibre of your being your opponent has less in reserve than you. If planned correctly you can surprise the enemy with your remaining strength and overwhelm both their attack and guard in one go.

Sometimes though, the twist that gives us the upper-hand may indeed come from us, but it is not a calculated one. At times we surprise ourselves. For example, even the most experienced of us will be scared in a dangerous fight. But, as I always told Goten and Pan, it is not being fearless that will help you win; acknowledging danger is what will keep you alive, and fear is a primeval emotion and not easily suppressed. It is being brave, having faith in yourself and hope that, despite the risks you can prevail. These thoughts can bolster you.

 _[ Figure 1 ]_

 _[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/169976828582/1point9#one ]_

Whilst those are sweet and soothing words to use on children, taking them to heart has quantifiable effects. Fear manifests itself as physical symptoms that take their toll on the body. Trying to ignore fear outright takes effort, an internal non-stop argument with every new hazard we perceive. Having courage instead and accepting that fear as reality frees the mind of this debate and allows us to work on the constants; the physical symptoms of shaking hands, laboured breath and other fight-or-flight urges. The particular tussle between the mind and senses to recover effort spent suffering from fear is referred to as yuuki, or courage. Should we dwell on fear and therefore have poor yuuki, we lose the ability to access many of the higher levels of ki energy as we do not have enough mental capacity, or effort, available. Correctly managing fear and freeing up effort means you can access higher levels of genki energy to charge with. To the outside observer watching someone settle themselves, it can appear as though yuuki is another pool of energy to draw from.

A second, complementary state of mind impacts our ability to draw energy from the field. Anything that can disrupt shouki - our sense of self-assuredness, our mind, will affect our ability to be stable enough to touch the ki-field and hold the genki there in place as it is amplified. Anything that will rattle or bait you - taunts, displays of power, threats to the lives of others and any other form of surprise can trigger this destabilisation.

One may think shouki and yuuki are the same but baiting an opponent to such a degree they lose their calm completely can have the desired effect without eliciting fear in them. Even an experienced ki-user losing their cool will have their power level knocked significantly in this fashion. A rattled opponent could attempt to draw on more genki to compensate and maintain their overall power level but this will cause them to tire quicker. It is best to let attempted distractions roll over you and make good use of threats to channel helpful emotional responses instead. This way you will retain your shouki and therefore strength. Alternatively you could practice your own battlefield trash talk to bring your opponent down to your level. As easy as this may seem I do not recommend this course of action as a first port of call. You will have to be prepared to back up your threats for them to be effective, and I hope you wouldn't use the teachings in this book to harm the lives of the innocent or unwillingly coerced fighters. Believe me, I've met some wonderfully nasty people in my time and beyond taunting someone to get them to make the first move, I'd never dream of reaching their dizzying heights of awfulness needed to shake their shouki to the core.

I've spoken of how the field is accessible through genki and therefore sentience, implying the energy source remains untappable through other means. This isn't quite true. A way to access that energy is possible, and I know that due to two of our friends and one much-maligned scientist.

Now, I'm not one to disparage my colleagues at large without ample reason, and I'm sure many of them will agree when I present this simple truth: whilst scientists entertain the idea of making huge, paradigm-shifting discoveries, they don't much enjoy the possibility of their colleagues doing the same. For a gaggle of people who consider themselves forward-thinking and open-minded, huge changes in establishment do not happen overnight in the academic world. Sometimes the best ideas and inventions are routinely dismissed until championed by a leader in the field (I am in Professor Jukyou's debt here) or until they cannot be ignored any longer. Maybe the work is disparaged because the idea is outlandish, or maybe because the scientist it originated from is not well-thought of.

In this case I'm speaking of Dr Gero, a scientist and talented engineer, and a contemporary of the founder of Capsule Corporation, Dr Brief. His wide expertise in robotics and other forms of electrical and bio-engineering were unparalleled at the time, though his propensity to exploit his inventions for the development of weaponry was not admired by the academic community. Or anyone for that matter come to think of it, beyond the other founding members of the Red Ribbon Army. Suffice to say the terrorist group would have got nowhere without his efforts; their military might rivalling the King's Guard at one terrifying point in time.

Despite his arguably flawed method of gaining research funding he never believed what he was doing was actually wrong. Far from it, that his research and technological developments were for the greater benefit of the world at large and more people should join his cause. He continued to publish in fringe journals with questionable peer review processes hoping to garner attention and assistance (I guess I'm one to talk about the latter right now), but the scientific community shunned him, barely even glancing at the paper abstracts before throwing his work in the trash.

If they hadn't then maybe they would have spotted some elements of his research pertaining to ki. Some ki basics. How to absorb genki from others and change its intent with technology. How to permanently change a life form, even a fully sentient one, into one that bypasses the need for genki altogether, effectively creating an untiring being of unnaturally long life. How to combine and manipulate DNA to create a life, crucially adding in the ki component that had been missing from previous controversial creation experiments in more respectable journals.

Before you jump the gun let me reassure you. I'm not suggesting an individual's talent should outshine their behaviour, not in the slightest. No matter how important someone's work turns out to be, they should never be lauded unreservedly or even allowed to conduct research if their discoveries and practices fly in the face of ethics. There are many, many people out there who have reason to greatly dislike this man and the outcome of his research, both in his Red Ribbon days and beyond, and my family and friends are somewhere in that mix. But it would be dishonest of me to continue this book without at least a passing reference to his previous research and how that has greatly impacted the construction of this model of ki. I guess in a strange way, the posthumous Dr Gero has been both a rival and a collaborator to me now. My ten year old self would never have guessed.

One of Dr Gero's more successful experiments gave us, after a convoluted series of events, our friends the cyborgs Androids 17 and 18 ('Seventeen' and 'Eighteen' to us). Their name and description may seem mutually exclusive, androids being completely artificially created machines and cyborgs modified humans. Seventeen and Eighteen are definitely the former, but they were named the latter both in keeping with the pattern of Gero's previous experiments and we assume as a control measure to make Seventeen and Eighteen question whether they were ever once fully organic. We know they are twins and must have been kidnapped as older teens, augmented in a hope to make relentless agents of destruction, though the Seventeen and Eighteen we know didn't get much around to being controlled in that fashion. They aren't certain of their lives or real names before Dr Gero's influence, nor precisely sure of what he did, but if the total and invasive nature of the modifications made to them are anything to go by that memory loss may have a silver lining.

To me, the extent and manner of their designed abilities are nothing short of terrifying. I am far too comfortable tracking people with their ki signature. Not just seriously in battle but anything from knowing who's home when I step through the door, to finding small children who toddle away to cause mischief when my back is briefly turned. Seventeen and Eighteen however have no ki signature to speak of. To my ki-sense they are completely invisible, and should they wish to they could catch me wide open.

From trial and error (and Dr Gero's published works) we've established that whilst they had a centre like all living things, its connection to the ki-field has been completely severed and is therefore for all intents and purposes non-existent. They have no way to produce genki. Instead, each cell works alone as a tiny centre, possessing software that maintains homeostasis for them. Even with that development they still require ki, as thought and emotion requires systemic support and influence the whole body. Instead, using a biorobotic technology that is able to mimic a ki particle pioneered by Dr Gero, they derive their entire ki pool from the ki-field completely freely, parcellated perfectly. They aren't limited by the trappings of biological evolution and so their augmentations allow them to write intent on this ki perfectly easily, but there is no idiosyncratic ki signature associated with it. Without a ki signature, Seventeen and Eighteen are impossible to hunt down. They aren't entirely blank to ki-sense; when nearby I can faintly pick up intent, and there's a component of thought and emotion embroiled within, but those patterns are orders of magnitude lower in strength than a ki signature. Plus, the siblings are very good at hiding flares in emotion to remain undetectable, coming across cold and impassive when not completely relaxed.

Not only that but due to the artificial nature of gathering ki, they never run out of it, and because ki can be transformed to other forms of energy they are not limited by the need to eat, only hydrate. They do have a maximum power level, the amount of energy they can draw from the field per second, but both of them can and will train to push that limit higher. Combined with their lack of ki signature, their modifications makes them both formidable opponents.

I wouldn't worry about them though. Other than their blunt manner and sense of humour so dark and dry you're never quite sure if they're joking or threatening to murder you in your sleep, they can be very forthright yet warm people when you get to know them. Seventeen and most of his family study and maintain an otherwise off-limits Nature Reserve on an island within South City's jurisdiction (actually I redact my previous statement: you _should_ worry about Seventeen if you're a poacher). Eighteen lives in Satan City, happily married to my Uncle Krillin and is Marron's mother. Some World Martial Arts Tournament aficionados will have heard of Eighteen at least. She was the runner-up in the 25th, losing to Mr Satan in the one-off Battle Royale. Whilst Marron has inherited parts of her mother's dangerous temperament, she is fully organic and thus has a ki-signature formed from a combination of her parents' - in part what her mother's would have been at least. As expected then Marron has not inherited her mother's greatly extended youthful looks. Eighteen is mistaken for her daughter's sister, her _younger_ sister now, more and more regularly; it is a hot-button issue whenever we meet, especially with youthful Saiyan friends around, too. Betting on the first time Marron will be mistaken for Eighteen's mother has been expressly forbidden by Marron should we "jynx it" and age her prematurely.

Speaking of betting, a question you may now be asking yourself: given my description of Eighteen and her abilities, how powerful must Mr Satan have been to have bested her at the 25th tournament? I have a feeling not many people who gambled at the tournament are going to like the answer and so I will not directly respond to it, though I believe the start of chapter 2 will provide sufficient explanation.

Before we move on to putting everything we've learnt from the first chapter into practice - from understanding the broad scope of ki, defining the centre and the construction of genki, through to the processes behind manipulating the centre's flow and charge and finally seemingly defying physics - please allow me one final indulgence. My PhD did involve some computational modelling, afterall. As a demonstration I want to explain at a high level how the new ki-scouters, engineered by Bulma and Mai, both read power-levels and can produce individual profiles on ki-users to help us train. Yes, there is math, but don't be alarmed - the section is a completely optional read! Unless this textbook is forming part of the lecture series I'm envisioning of course, at which point there'll be supplementary derivations provided, I'm sure.

* * *

 _ **Uploader's note:**_

 _The Prof's not joking, either. Guess he's testing your nerdery to the limit... -Liberator_


	13. 1-10 Breaking Down the Power Level

_Uploader's note: A huge chunk of the second half is equations - I've thrown them all on the side site in one go. Good luck~! -Liberator_

 _Uploader's note 2: Well, it seems like the Professor's found this mirror: groundbreaking-science dot com/post/170171468988/groundbreaking-science-on-ffn_

 _Oops. Still... He's wrong, people need to know. Share this knowledge!_

* * *

 _ **1-10 - Breaking Down the Power Level**_

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From the start of my patchy teaching career, beginning as a brother then a parent, my general ethos towards explaining the world has been to never patronise. I have developed _some_ semblance of self-awareness over the years and so may at times simplify or reign in tangents - not everyone needs to know the minutiae to gain a broad understanding of a topic. My aim though is to never shy away from trying to provide a full answer to a question posed, no matter the age or background of the poser. An earnest and enthusiastic question deserves a considered answer with all the nuance one's expertise can provide in the situation. I trust those listening to instead communicate where clarification would be helpful, or sift through what they need in the moment and chew over the rest later.

In contrast there's a trend in wider media to cling to 'consumers' of scientific content by ratcheting up the the sensational, the over-simplified, the drama that may or may not be manufactured for entertainment. Narratives within popular science help guide and contain the message within (no one wants to be subjected to a list of facts, even regarding ki) but often the science is so watered down the only substance of the piece _is_ the fluff. Those with a genuine palate for science (or history, or literature, or…) are left underwhelmed on repeated readings and sometimes even mistrusting of the expertise involved.

It is for those reasons I decided to include this section, a hat tip to the insatiably curious; though for those among you with little appetite for a smattering of mathematics I first bring you a tangential (and completely true) offering in the form of a fish.

I have spoken frequently of a model for ki. By that I mean a story that explains the effects of ki we see using fundamental quantities. The story links cause and effect in the form of equations, transforming the qualitative to the quantitative.

The model presented here is not perfect. All models are an approximation to the truth and there are many simplifications (particularly in this version and I will highlight where), but broadly it performs well and the limitations of the model are well defined. I trust you to take away what most useful to you now, and I hope this treatment gives potential undergraduates a taster for some of the more theoretical aspects of a course on ki-use I hope will materialise in the near-future.

When in battle one question sits on the tip of everyone's tongue: "What is the enemy's power level?" This is proxy phrase to ask many questions at once. What is the opponent's potential? How many people will be required to tackle them? How much strength should I use straight out of the gate? What is the risk to the local environment, the nearby populace, the planet? The highest power level will not _always_ win a fight. Power level differences of an order of magnitude, even sometimes two can be overcome with teamwork and sound strategy. Getting an early indication of the opponent's location and power can give your team vital time to plan and distribute yourselves effectively.

As we discussed in a previous section the idea of a power-level measuring device - the scouter - was first introduced to us by Freeza's personal army and deconstructed by Bulma.

The original scouters performed perfectly well in the situation they were designed for, searching for clusters of life-forms with power levels of 0-2 (encompassing the vast majority of people in the Universe) to allow the possessors to commit mass murder extremely efficiently. The scouters were able to stretch beyond this range, reaching higher power levels of 5.3; any higher and the harmonic oscillator arrays constructed to respond to the vibrations in the ki field (with technology developed along a similar branch to Dr Gero's) would break. Specifically: the atomic 'pendulums' of varied masses contained within ion traps would be kicked out of the holding magnetic fields and flung away into the rest of the structure, shorting the electronics and usually exploding the device. The designers believed it so unlikely any of Freeza's forces would encounter someone that strong they didn't deem it necessary to prioritise the scouter-wearer's safety. Clearly Freeza's true strength, peaking above a power level of six at that time, was hidden from the vast majority of his forces.

The fully artificial scouters were not flexible enough to cope with everything life could throw at it. Life itself on the other hand has an amazing capacity to give as good as it gets. I can sense everything from tiny fogs of ki in less-than-clean water to the brightest kis in the Universe standing almost blindingly close, and I can do it all without shorting my own circuitry. Whilst the mechanical scouters have a range of 0-5.3, the newer versions developed on Earth can cope with -1 to 12, (or 0.1 to 1,000,000,000,000 unlogged). That is tested. Hypothetically they should remain accurate up to a power level of 15 but we never want to be in situation where we're reading that. Our method's downside is the loss of precision compared to the original scouter, which was able to differentiate just as well between power levels of 1 and 2 and 10,000 and 10,001. Our scouters do maintain a one-in-a-thousand precision however, which is usually sufficient. Anyone wanting finer precision to monitor and argue their progress needs another hobby.

Capsule Corp employees have for the most part stayed away from playing with the biophysics of life, knowing the trouble and potential backfire meddling can cause through the work of Dr Gero. What little research and development that _has_ been done in this field has been led by Bulma and Mai through all above-board personal funding. The new scouters are a result of this off-piste research and utilise a genetic modification of bioluminescent bacteria found in a tropical fish.

The fish in question - the blue-finned angelfish - exclusively inhabits the coral reefs around one of the many South Sea archipelagos. They're crepuscular feeders, making use of the changing light levels at dawn and dusk that other fish and invertebrates struggle to cope with. When hunting for prey like small fish and krill they spread into what can appear to be a dangerously loose shoal. What makes this strategy effective is the beautiful symbiotic relationship the fish has with a bacteria within the fish's transparent skin along the fins and tail. The bacteria glows neon yellow using bioluminescence near low power levels (-2 to -1.5) and flickers in a predictable pattern with the ki signature, the wave of flickering allowing for the triangulation of distance. When the glow starts, the fish play a game of hot and cold until close enough to pinpoint their prey through smell. The now brighter glow brings the rest of the shoal to feed into the early night.

Why then are are these fish known as the blue-finned and not yellow-finned angelfish? Well they are locally, though zoologists from the mainland way-back-when never much listened to local expertise, routinely removing chosen specimens from their natural environment to study in the comfort of the lab. As the scientists approached the fish in the tank back home their fins glowed a bright blue and the fish reacted poorly, racing to escape. It transpires the bacteria can luminesce over _two_ colours, yellow for prey and blue for predators - the latter covering intensities of 0.3-2. This range catches the bigger fish and reef sharks that home in on the yellow glow of a feeding shoal. When a wave of blue creeps across the shoal in the near-dark, the fish know to hide. It just so happens this range encompasses the scientists' own power levels, too. To the scientists with clipboards then, these were only ever blue-finned glowing fish.

 _[[ Figure 1 ]]_

 _[[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/170171153987/1point10#one ]]_

The locals know of the fish's defence intimately and is a source of great amusement. There's a shallow, natural harbour in one of the smaller islands that, very rarely, a large shoal of angelfish will chase prey into. The harbour is sealed and all the boats dragged onto the shore. A call is then sent to the other islands for an impromptu night-long festival, a spontaneous get-together and chance to catch-up. Traditionally the arrival of the fish had been seen as a mixed omen, that bad luck is ongoing or shortly arriving. Assembling a group to challenge the fish twice-touched by a creator god (once for each colour) however will guide the selection of the warrior or leader to pull the islands through a time of strife.

The challenge is as follows. Representatives from each attending island volunteer to take on the fish. Their true reasons for participating are varied: trained warriors, children nearing adulthood, people looking to impress an onlooker they're sweet on, older fishermen showing off their talent, the local clown putting on a show. Each representative is then painted over the course of the afternoon by friends and family with a glowing set of pigments (not made from the fish fins, I hasten to add). Some designs are beautifully intricate; most are messy, child-sized handprints. Everyone then waits for twilight with great anticipation.

The participants take it in turns to wade in and try to catch a fish in the harbour with only a net - the great difficulty being of course the fish will glow blue and alert the shoal to avoid the intruder. This leaves an ever-moving empty ring of water around the participant to flounder in, struggling to cast the net and maybe just reaching the shoal edge. The larger their genki, the wider that ring and the greater the challenge. The winner is decided by elected older folk, and is usually a combination of how fast a fish was caught and how much paint was left on the challenger's body. About half of participants catch and release a fish, nearly everyone trips over, and the spectators have a great time.

Nowadays the omens and winners are not taken seriously beyond passing on fantastical stories, spooking the children or for gaining bragging rights. Usually.

The year before the 28th World Martial Arts Tournament a shoal made their way into the harbour. The residents of one of many islands answered the call, the group including the young Papayaman and his family. Their island hadn't been doing so well in recent years; the Moon's twice vanishing and reappearing act dampened the tides for a time and their delicate yellow mangrove trees took a hit. The entire food chain around the islands and reef were disrupted and the trees would take decades to recover. As the slow-growing tree bark is prized for its tannin, the island's economy took a brutal hit, too. The residents, previously relatively wealthy, had eaten into their savings and were near the brink. Going to the festival was supposed to be a rare fun day out for the family. As the eldest sibling at nine years old, the boy who would become Papayaman had already resolved to compete in the hope he would be worthy enough to help his family.

The evening went smoothly until the boy took the long walk down towards the water. As he hit the shoreline the fish retreated, that blue ring growing to taunt him, he believed. When in the water the scale of the challenge stretched before him. There was _no way_ he would be able to throw the net that far out, let alone hold onto it to drag a fish back. He became more and more frustrated as his time and paint dwindled and his anger, something he rarely felt, rose… then burst. For a moment the entire bay was full of blue stars, lighting up the dusk. Then the fish bolted, some even jumping onto the shore in a frantic escape attempt, causing pandemonium amongst the younger children.

The boy did not catch a fish himself in the end. But there was no doubt about his potential throughout the archipelago, and he was brought into warrior training as soon as he returned home. He was then selected to attend the tournament on nearby Papaya Island to earn money for his village. Although he didn't win, due to his efforts and subsequent training the island eventually did recover.

It would take a number of years for the shoal to arrive again but the now young man would eventually find a way to catch that fish, finally marking (from his own perspective at least) his graduation from training with my father. And as they say, the rest is history.

My first encounter with the fish was a little more begrudging. I had just "moved" to East City for a postdoctoral position into a cosy office with two others funded on the same grant. We got on well and I was hoping for a relatively relaxing couple of years. That was thrown out the window within the first month when the zebrafish aficionados in the labs two floors below decided to branch out, nabbing a number of blue-finned angelfish to get to grips with the bioluminescence. They'd hypothesised the glowing bacteria were responding to the fish's excitement and stress levels (apologies for not correcting you sooner) and were planning on running behavioural studies.

Those fish _hated_ me. Even at that distance, my natural aura was just the right strength to set them off. No one could figured out why the fish were constantly stressed during lab hours, until of course the news reached our office and I put two and two together. My chronically guilty self had the most fun five months suppressing my genki at work until the lab moved from data collection to analysis and the fish returned home. Still, I'm grateful I got to peruse the results from the bacterial DNA sequencing. I relayed the gist to Bulma and she was able to isolate, then modify, the particular colour and ki range the bacteria glowed at. I've contacted the old lab members for co-authorship on this new work. I hope they're not too mad.

It is these modified bacteria the new scouters use to read power levels and ki signatures. Stacked into mini vials filled with agar, the bacteria respond to ki much like cone cells in the eye respond to light wavelength. The spectrum of light emitted by the bacteria indicate the intensity of ki hitting the scouter, and the specific pulsing is monitored and decomposed to identify ki signatures - much like instruments can be isolated from a song. With at least two detector packs and accelerometers to track the movement of the wearer, ki signatures can be triangulated and located. A simple pair of glasses (less conspicuous than the original scouters) can be used display results - one lens for a simple overlay or both for a full 3D effect. The isolation isn't fantastic at a distance as the baseline separation between the detectors isn't that great, but in relatively close quarters they work perfectly. Better yet are the systems Mai built into the jet flier and jeep windshield that give a heads-up display of the scene for both the driver and passenger. Due to "popular" demand there is a smartphone app, though sadly the hardware is not included.

All in all we're pretty well-equipped to quantify overall power level. The measure was rendered completely useless by Earth's martial artists, however. As soon as Freeza's army found we could suppress our ki and therefore their scouters were unable to accurately predict any form of maximal potential, the tech was discarded. With the new scouters, getting beyond that one measure to find all the parameters - genki boosts, yuuki, shouki, the base power, flow suppressions, effort - is entirely possible and we can fully model a person's ki-use and potential. The equations for the model (omitting the calculus) are as follows.

 _[[ The Derivation: Math is hardcore enough - you really don't want to be flicking between two pages for all the equations, so I put the whole derivation on my side account. - Liberator. ]]_

 _[[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/170171153987/1point10#derivation ]]_

Given some loose assumptions and probabilities assigned to each of these variables - so-called priors that were discussed in section 1-3 - one can monitor a changing power level and narrow down these assumptions using increasing evidence as time passes to give parameter estimates.

What kind of priors? We know some states of particle flow and genki charge are difficult to reach due to the harmonics inherent in the process, and so ki-users are going to avold particular power levels due to the increase in effort required to hold them. We can assume ki-users will default to a habitual level of genki amplification. Flow rate will never increase above base without particular techniques like transformation. Charge never drops below the default level unless the flow rate is unnaturally high or the ki-useris exhausted. All of these assumptions can be programmed into the model as prior assumptions.

One must be careful with priors to never attribute zero probability to a possibility otherwise that one-in-a-million chance will never appear in the probable results in the updating model. I could assume that no one with a Earthling appearance could have a power-level above 2, for example. If I turn these assumption on my Uncle Krillin the model will give the best answer it can, maybe trying to say that he has a very efficient genki to field conversion rate to compensate for the lack of flexibility in the model. Instead by allowing some very small, highly unlikely chance for an Earthling to have such a high natural power level, the prior will be pulled to this region with every new data point, showing the unlikely to be more and more possible.

When encountering odd enemies one may 'widen the priors' to encompass highly unlikely scenarios like godly-powered Earthlings. 'Flattening the priors' means allowing all possible scenarios. Whilst that sounds like the best idea, it does lead to a large number of possible solutions when you know some combination of base stats are more likely to occur than others. Choosing priors for any kind of Bayesian analysis is an art form in itself.

There can be a lot of information and possibilities to process when building up a picture of a ki-user, but with a careful set of tasks to perform in a calm environment, someone's base stats at least can be obtained and updated on a semi-regular basis. This narrows down the parameter space before entering battle considerably, reducing the uncertainty when finding the dynamic variables. Some tasks include running up and down ki output from fully suppressed to maximum or how quickly one can amplify a set amount of genki. For new enemies the scouter has to work overtime, but with every second of new information our intel improves considerably. Even if all the enemies parameters haven't been constrained, the more varied their attacks and strategy the faster we can build up a picture to start answering key questions such as whether the enemy is holding back their strength.

For our team, Mai is able to feed us updates about each other's status, allowing us to adjust the plan should someone be running low and too proud to admit it, or the enemy be surprisingly resilient. For all the rudimentary single word or single image telepathy usually thrown around the field, it can be rather disconcerting to hear an articulate voice in your ear confirming that you're tired, or Auntie Bulma yelling to calm down should the panic be setting in. I refer to 'us'; I'm never very careful with the tiny earpiece and I blow it within minutes. As much as the data intrigues me I'm far too used to running from my own observations. I'm not the only one to have been on the sharp end of a scolding, they are notoriously difficult to keep intact. Pan has the longest survival time of forty-five minutes and even that's contested as for the first half an hour she was deliberately suppressing as a feint.

The scouters are useful in the moment and for review, but their most interesting day-to-day function is how the software can track improvement. This of course leads to competition. Endless competition. From conversations I've overheard, the moment one of the kids feels they've improved the scouters are out. There are often disputes because someone is 'using the scouter wrong' and Mai is dragged in to adjudicate or fix what turns out to be perfectly functional hardware… Bulma put her foot down very quickly on getting drawn into these arguments. Even the old guard cannot contain their curiosity and will play with them at parties for old times' sake.

Realistically though the live-feed technology is more a gimmick for us. We know each other well enough and are sadly so experienced our gut reactions, whilst not quantifiable, are usually correct. In actuality the technology as a whole continues to be developed for future use. It would be well-suited for personal status trackers across a large group to be fed back to a control hub, or to help tailor training for new ki-users to maximise their efforts.

"New ki-users". For those who haven't flicked to later chapters that phrase must be torture to read right now. I understand. This section now closes the 'brief' chapter on the theoretical framework behind ki and we will now move onto the practical elements. You can breathe. Speaking of, if you have been working on those centring exercises I'd hope you'd have found your centre by now, have fantastic posture and felt the first hints of the natural flow of genki with your breath. This is preparation that will, in the coming chapter, pay dividends.

Ah. During this chapter I did promise you a particular story. I hadn't forgotten, nor have I left it deliberately late to tease. I wanted to put myself, friends and family in a wider context before tackling it lest there is any misunderstanding after. I also wanted to put the story front and centre in the textbook chapter I believe will be the most read because of the tale's significance - not just to world history or tangentially to ki but to me.

It's about the Cell Games, and how I came to be that little boy on the hill.

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(( Author's/Note: For those wanting to dive a little deeper into this extended Universe with a standard fic, check out **"From The Shadows"** \- the first three chapters of which take place exactly after the publication of this section of textbook and before the next. _[[ fanfiction dot net/s/12814920/1/From-The-Shadows ]]_! I usually keep quiet but since I'm here - thank you all for reading/skimming the first Chapter of Groundbreaking Science! Your likes/follows/messages seriously mean a lot to me to thank you! ))


	14. 2-0 Breaking the Natural Flow

_**2-0 - Sensing and Manipulation - "Breaking the Natural Flow"**_

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How does that picture book retelling of the Cell Games go again? We had it at one point, a staple of Pan's bedtime routine. You can never find these things when you need them of course but I'm sure I remember the broad strokes.

Once upon a time there was an alien called Cell. Cell was very bad. It liked to eat people for dinner, and the tastiest people of all were the _scared_ kind. One day, Cell snuck down to Earth to eat. It gobbled up one person for breakfast, but that wasn't enough. It gobbled up _two_ people for lunch, but that still wasn't enough. It gobbled up THREE WHOLE people for dinner but yet that _still_ was _not_ enough! Now, scaring people was hard work and always left Cell hungry. If it was going to eat its fill, Cell needed to scare the entire world at once…

Cell was cunning, and devised a plan to challenge the world to a tournament. If Earth could beat it it would go away hungry, but if Cell won it'd eat everyone for its dinner! But Cell was also a cheater. It used explosions and magic tricks on its TV show to scare everyone away from competing. He decided to let the world stew in fear for nine days. The longer people were afraid, the tastier they would be. It licked its lips in anticipation, thinking itself so very clever.

But Cell did not expect Mr. Satan, the World's Champion to come to the rescue! Cell threw fire and lasers to scare Mr. Satan into giving up, but he was brave, and saw through its lies. Cell was not strong at all - it was all just magic tricks! Cell pleaded for its life but the alien had been too wicked across the Galaxy to escape justice. With one huge Satan Punch, Cell was defeated. His punch was so strong it undid all Cell's evil and everyone came back to life! Mr. Satan had saved the world, and he keeps us safe to this day. The End.

It's an alarmingly dark story of good and evil, how we should fight against trickery and be brave in the face of adversity. Even better because it's true, yes?

For those old enough to remember The Games themselves, I'm sure you'll agree the picture painted above is a gross simplification at best. Notable omissions include the civil unrest after Cell's broadcast, Mr. Satan's initial loss in the ring before all pretence of the tournament was lost and of course the mysterious challengers - me and my friends and family. In fact our presence is completely glossed over these days in material for all ages. This is by design. We would rather you forget about that ragtag band using the same magic tricks as Cell. The most charitable accounts of our appearance say we were misguided amateurs wanting to make a name for ourselves. The least forgiving say we were in on the plot. Very few theories have the measure of it.

If you were to root through ZTV's archives, deep in the vaults below ZPress' main headquarters, there, on an unassuming rack, you'd find the original battered camera footage and corresponding Cell Games' broadcast tapes. These tapes went missing until very recently. Oh, their absence was noted, though never publicised - what an _embarrassment_ that would have caused. I know because I had them at home on my own shelf. I was curious what little footage there was towards the end of the bout, as my own memories were vivid but distorted over the years. Suffice to say that with what they showed I was a little reluctant to return them. Still, after this, I'm sure they'll be hauled out, and with a little imagination and extrapolation there's enough there to confirm my story.

Pan very much enjoyed the picture book - cajoling her Gramps to act it out with her when they played. But when she was old enough to understand how to keep secrets I retold it - the story being told somewhat differently in our household nowadays. Bear with me as the truth is a little more winding; with a far larger cast filled with knights, monsters, witches and wizards, giants and the Chimera itself, and begins some three years before the Games themselves.

Are you tucked in tight? Good. Then I'll begin.

There once was a boy called Trunks.

Now. The Trunks in this story was not the Trunks we know and love today. Yes, they both were the son of an uncrowned King from a long-lost kingdom and the Good Witch, and they both grew up in those vaulted corridors of Capsule Castle. They even looked the same: the same set jaw when serious, the same high hairline inherited from their father, hidden behind those bangs. They both could swing a sword. But this Trunks was a little more polite, not as self-assured, would have to learn to laugh a little more - and I'm sure he wouldn't have played tricks on his sister and niece half as much as the Trunks _we_ know.

This Trunks was waiting. The cliffs from which he watched the unfolding scene below were like those at home - all but desolate for miles around. But he could feel the world and this world was truly _alive_ ; millions upon millions of people across the land, more than he'd ever sensed. And that gave him hope.

He had heard stories of the warriors in past-times led by the Golden Knight, your own Grandpa Son Goku; the strongest and bravest fighter there had ever been. At home and in foreign lands the secret order battled against evil wizards, demons and monsters to keep their chosen homeland safe for the King and his subjects. The warriors and knights were different from the rank and file of the King's soldiers, for they knew how to harness the power of Words to bring forth great strength from within; echoing the powers of beasts, or of fire and the Sun, great winds, and even dragons. Trunks had been taught the same secret Words, but he was all alone in his land, not even yet a grown man but defending it as best he could from terrible monsters. He had come to our land to find your Grandpa, the Golden Knight of Legend, and to warn him.

Down below I was waiting too, though in great fear. I was just a lowly squire back then, surrounded by the great warriors Trunks had only heard of, along with the Good Witch, your Auntie Bulma. Your Grandpa had been travelling in distant lands to learn more Words and secrets and had promised to return soon. But now it would be too late. Far from the joyful reunion we were one day hoping for we found ourselves yet again rushing towards trouble. Your Grandpa had not vanquished that conqueror of other lands - the evil "Lord" Freeza. The Tyrant had risen again, and this time we were alone.

Now Freeza was upon us, his ship weighing anchor behind our hideaway cliffs. His forces flooded ashore, followed by himself and his much stronger father. We panicked. For the third time in my seven years of life I was preparing myself to face down impossible odds.

However, high on the cliffs the lonely knight was not concerned. He knew the story - the Golden Knight of Legend would appear in a few hours and save the lands once again. Trunks would just hold on until the battle was over to give his message in secret before travelling home…

But something was wrong.

Soon, Trunks could see, we would be abandoning our hiding spot to make our desperate surprise attack. He knew that would spell our doom, the difference in strength between even this land's greatest warriors and the Tyrant far too great. There wasn't much time. With Grandpa not around, Trunks would have to intervene.

As we readied ourselves for what could be our last moments I sensed the _impossible_ and froze - Freeza's henchman dying in a moment beyond the rock, their lives snuffed out as if a candle flame in a gale. But before I had a chance to grapple with this, above us flew a figure bright against the sky, shining golden, almost as blinding as the Sun itself. A memory of crystallized righteous rage came back to me then: a Golden Knight, a legend realised in the distant land of Namek. Was this Grandpa? No. Stronger than I remembered. The apparition cleaved Freeza in two with his sword, sliced him to pieces and blasted him into nothingness with just his breath. Freeza. Grandpa's struggle with the Tyrant had razed the entire Namekian's homeland to the ground. But here was a new Golden Knight, so much stronger than your Grandpa.

We rushed closer to see, hoping the miracle was not a trick of the distance. Even Freeza's father wasn't a problem for him. The Golden Knight defeated him easily, burnt their ship - then turned to greet us warmly and politely. We were relieved to find out he was on our side. He told us he knew when and where your Grandpa would come ashore and asked us whether we wanted to come and greet him. But how could anyone know that?

Knights were born not made, that was a fact, and I thought I knew all of them. What's more, the Golden Knight was only supposed to appear once every thousand years. Up close the boy didn't look much of a knight to me - his eyes and hair were too light - but there was no doubt about his bloodline. And if _he_ could become a Golden Knight, could I?

I had a lot of questions for this young knight. The others asked theirs in turn but he rebuffed them all. He couldn't explain himself or how he knew your Grandpa. A secret mission from a far away land, I guessed.

True to the boy's word Grandpa came ashore exactly when expected and we rushed to greet him. He was glad to see us after his long journey, but looked past us to the new knight. Your Grandpa had never met the boy either, even though the knight claimed to know of him.

They spoke away from us for some time, the boy revealing in secret to your Grandpa who he truly was, his name and parentage. A knight indeed from a far away land - but far away in time, not distance. This Trunks was from the future, and carried a grave story of our fates.

In Age 767, on May 12th at around 10 am, two monsters of immense destructive power would appear on an island 9 miles southwest of South City: Amenbo Island. Wanting nothing more than to kill for fun, these monsters would easily obliterate every fighter and soldier in the land in their first onslaught. From there they would decimate the population, cruelly hunting the King's subjects for sport to pass their time. The monsters _never_ stopped. Your uncles would hardly make a stand, run through almost instantly. I would escape, and use the understanding of the Golden Knight I had gained as a squire to become one myself. I'd teach the boy the same in turn, acting as his mentor to hone him as a warrior and pass on every Word I knew until I too would succumb. And Grandpa? The great Golden Knight himself would never even see the battle - he would die of a sudden sickness of the heart in a matter of months.

The Fates in the boy's time said we were all doomed. But not now, not with his warning. His land was nearly lost but we still had time to save _our_ future. The boy gave Grandpa a potion to cure him when he would fall sick, and before leaving gave us his word he would return when the day came, should he survive the time between trips. Then, almost as suddenly as he'd entered our story, he vanished into the ether.

Seeing his magic as proof of the boy's prophecy, the warriors all vowed to meet again at the battlefield in three years time, fully prepared. For the most part we went our separate ways, myself with Grandpa back home to your Grandma and our tranquil farm in the hills. But it would not remain quiet for long - we'd need to train together.

Those three years were an odd time for us. Dreaming of a future felt wrong (knowing what was coming), but I am grateful your Grandma insisted we live as normally as possible. I continued my schooling with her, learning my words and numbers to fulfill my wish to become a Great Scholar someday, to take advantage of the peacetime we hoped for. And with Grandpa I trained to become a real warrior Knight, preparing to one day hold the flame of the Golden Knight, him teaching me many of the Words _he_ knew, ready for the future we knew was coming.

Often I would lay awake at night wondering about the boy, the knight we met that fateful day, whether there was anyone thinking of a future for him like Grandma was for me. With May 12th fast approaching I hoped we'd see him safe again.

We would only find out what truly happened to Trunks' land and how he came to find us when we met him the second time. In his land there was no Uncle Goten to play with, no little Bra to carry on his shoulders, not even a little Pan to defend his castle against. Trunks was a sworn soldier through and through. When his teacher - the me in the future - had lost his life in battle he made a promise to protect all he could and vowed to defeat those great monsters. There weren't many people left in his land, but Trunks did what he could all the same.

His only constant company was his mother: the Good Witch Bulma. Like Trunks she helped everyone she could by making potions and spells and enchantments. But try as she might she could not magic away the worst evil - those two monsters. After years of trying their best and still retreating at every turn, most would lose hope of ever finding a way out of the nightmare. Not the Good Witch. She knew that if her magic couldn't get them out of the situation they were in _now_ , maybe they just had to change what _now_ was…

Time travel should be _impossible_ , but that word meant nothing to your Auntie Bulma. She worked day and night for years to construct her own special enchantment, the like of which no witch or wizard in the world ever made before or since: a time changer. Whoever used the device could travel in time, but there would only be enough magic for a trip to the past and back before it needed to be restored, and that could not be done quickly. Bulma had sent Trunks off to see us and held her breath for those few hours, overjoyed when he returned safe and sound. Her magic vindicated, she immediately she set to work restoring the enchantment.

From then on Trunks faced his monsters with renewed vigor. Now he knew the past had a fighting chance because of his warning and if he could _just_ visit us _one_ more time to assist he might learn a secret to defeat the monsters in his own time. As he fought on to stem the loss of life the Good Witch would work as fast as she dared, fearing the monsters drawing closer and closer.

It would be two years in Trunks' time before the enchantment was ready to use and his fateful trip finally a reality. He said goodbye to his mother not knowing whether he would ever see her again - neither his return trip or her survival in the meanwhile assured.

With one command he made his way back to us hopeful for our progress and found - well, a mess, quite frankly.

Death and destruction greeted him at our meeting place nine miles south west of South City. Trunks' prediction was wrong; the monsters had crawled out of their cave too early and had rampaged through the island we had so desperately wanted to defend. Barely anything was left standing. He found us in the midst of tracking down the perpetrators. Worse, your Grandpa wasn't with us to turn the tide; he'd only just fallen ill and taken the Good Witch's potion, now bedridden at home.

And to complete our misery those weren't the two monsters Trunks knew. The past had truly changed. Trunks was as lost as we were.

Thankfully our training had paid off at least - early in your uncles' desperate chase, your Uncle Vegeta caught and crushed the first monster. Up close we could see this one's true nature; it wasn't a demonic beast but manmade, conjured with a dark and powerful magic, an imitation of life puppeting nuts and bolts. It was a type of magic the Good Witch hadn't seen in many years: the work of Gero the Dark Wizard. In fact, the Good Witch informed us the other monster was none other than the Wizard himself - though not in human form. He had used his wicked magic to transform himself, becoming stronger and smarter. In his cunning he had led us to his lair, where more creatures laid in wait to defend him.

Three creations greeted us. The first he called 16, the kind of opponent we were expecting - a giant in stature with an overwhelming menace emanating from him, a great wall of possessed machinery who scowled and scrutinised all as though looking for someone.

The last two monsters were finally those of Trunks' warning - 17 and 18. Though we found them wanting in appearance - we envisioned horns and teeth and tails and wings, and given Trunks' fear you would have thought that's what he saw, plain as day.

In truth the terrible twins were human. Young and beautiful, they could pass unseen amongst us if they wished. Far from the full artifice of their companion they had once been human. But the wizard had mutated them, blood and bone and all, to draw out an unnatural strength; then cursed them as he had done his creations of metal. _They had but one purpose, one itch to scratch,_ the Wizard cackled - _to seek and destroy Son Goku_.

The wizard bade the three to kill all those who stood before him. Your uncles braced for what would be the final battle. And then… nothing. Instead the twins turned on their creator, their torturer, running him through in an instant for the crimes he had committed against them.

Cruelly however, his curse was not broken. 16 in particular, not being made of flesh, could not battle his driving desire and so the trio left to help him fulfil his binding, all the while paying the warriors no mind. This turn of events was far from expectation and the small army now found itself without an enemy.

In Trunks' future, the monsters 17 and 18 were pure evil and without care - that much was true. But Uncle Krillin did not see this in the Seventeen and Eighteen of our time when they pushed past him into the wide world they'd been hidden from for so long. Far from the murderers Trunks had painted them as, Krillin instead saw a tired, wretched pair who might be reasoned with. Everyone thought him mad, but Uncle Krillin hoped the damage to our land may not be as deadly as we'd first feared.

Regardless of the twins' eventual intentions, our focus now turned to protecting your Grandpa from the trio. He had barely recovered, and would not be able to fight the three monsters if they soon found him. I helped move him from home in secret, and your uncles worked to intercept the monsters; the great warriors now coming to the aid of their leader in his time of need.

Despite two Golden Knights supporting the band - both father and son in Vegeta and Trunks - without your Grandpa the warriors would struggle. Though not as cruel in our time, the strength of Seventeen and Eighteen was even greater than in the stories Trunks had told. We were prepared to match Trunks' future and no more.

Whether your uncles would have won in the end is uncertain. A greater threat still was heading towards both us and the monsters, indifferent to our respective causes.

We didn't notice the disappearances right away, distracted by the struggle at hand as we were. While our backs were turned entire towns of people had emptied, only their clothes left for passing travellers to stumble across. On any other day we would have sensed the void of life growing and helped. But this day we learnt something was wrong only as the whispers reached our friends at home. Something _else_ was out there, something beyond the horrors that even Trunks had seen.

The Chimera had arrived.

Cell stepped out of the shadows to announce itself to us, its sheer brazen confidence terrifying to behold. The history books speak of it as a demon from another land, but Cell was instead the pinnacle of The Dark Wizard's creation. In secret he had gathered blood from the strongest warriors in the realm and beyond and used blood magic to create a creature so grotesque, so wicked, I wouldn't dare describe it to someone as sweet as you. It was a Chimera, and called itself Cell. To gain strength it would need to eat hundreds of people alive, and to complete itself - to reach the peak of its evolution - it would have to take Seventeen and Eighteen. It was already stronger than us and we knew if it achieved its goal its power would be beyond our imagination. Our home - and very lives - would be lost.

What should have been a battle against the twisted 17 and 18 to save our future had exploded into a fight to save our lives and our present. Within seconds everything had been turned upon its head and we were now doing the unthinkable given our three years of preparation - defending the cursed creatures Seventeen and Eighteen from this new monstrosity. They were just as scared as we were.

But just in time, a near miracle! The Good Witch of our time sent your uncles her magic. She had been pouring over the Dark Wizard's work and had found instructions for a potion, one that would undo the wizard's sorcery on the human monsters, killing them in the process but making them useless to Cell. She entrusted this potion to Uncle Krillin. All he had to do was to fling the potion on them - a single drop would do the job.

Uncle Krillin rushed to find them, difficult though it was when both he and they were keeping low and away from Cell. He found them just in time and aimed his throw, but he could not release. Uncle Krillin knew that everyone was counting on him to kill the monsters before Cell could eat them, but as he watched them cowering, trying to help the heavily damaged giant Sixteen, he faltered. He realised how they had not killed anyone for fun like in Trunks' time and were only afraid for themselves, for each other… Instead, he poured the potion at his feet. Against everyone's protestations he had stayed his hand, unable to bring himself to kill innocent people. He hoped against hope it was the right thing to do.

In the short term it is fair to say that this was not the best decision. Cell caught the monsters and completed itself, becoming far stronger than any of us could have believed possible. Despite our efforts we had lost the battle. And yet, choices we make with a kind heart, even if initially regrettable, often have a habit of helping us in return when we least expect it.

Cell could have killed your uncles right then and there. But pride is a funny thing and Cell - to its detriment - had plenty. It could not face killing us before it had had a chance to best your Grandpa in battle. It wanted everyone in the land to weep hearing the sad laments of bards learning their one true secret champion had been defeated, and to tremble upon learning that Cell was on its way to set the land - and the world - to burn.

This is where the story begins for most everyone else. For years people would ask each other where they were the moment Cell announced the Games, his call for a worthy challenge and the nine day countdown to the everyone's doom. On that fateful day, Cell's proclamation filled the people with an overwhelming fear. They had no faith in the King's Guard, weakened after years of peace throughout the land. And they had no faith in the King's champions.

But the world had forgotten that long ago, there lived a little boy who fought the Great Demon King Piccolo.

The world had forgotten the warrior who turned aside the threat of the invading Knights and Tyrants.

The world had forgotten your Grandpa.

And in doing so they - and Cell - knew nothing of me.

In the nine days between the announcement and the Games the land panicked. Your uncles panicked. _I_ panicked. But not Grandpa. After recovering from his illness, he worked patiently with me so I could learn and finally master the way of the Golden Knight he, Trunks and now Uncle Vegeta knew; everyone would be needed for this fight, after all. Scared as I was holding this new Wordless flame inside my heart, I was willing to do my part to help. Then, with still a week to go, we stopped. Grandpa said we were ready.

The news excited me. _Do you think you can beat Cell?_ I asked him. _Not a chance,_ he sang, _but I have a plan._ He just smiled at me, like I should be in on his secret strategy too. Our friends asked the same and he repeated his reply. To not think he could lead us to victory, yet be so happy? Some wondered whether Grandpa had lost his mind. I didn't understand him, but I believed in him, and had faith in his unspoken plan.

The only training we were to do between then and the Games was to live as a Golden Knight day and night, to feel as though this was normal for us so we would not tire or be overcome with that wild emotion. In trying to navigate our day on the homestead we learned restraint, how to hold onto that power without wastage, and how to avoid being burnt from holding the flame so close. Otherwise, Grandpa told me, my job was to relax.

At the same time, not quite half the world away, your Gramps came to exactly the same conclusion. As the winner of the recent tournament of warriors, he knew he was _the_ strongest person in the land - no foreign-trained upstart could stand up to the likes of _him_. He told the bards to spread the word, that Cell better watch out - Mr. Satan was on his way. The land rejoiced; they had their hero, and the world's best no less. They were saved! The rest of the week filled itself with celebration, as though the match were already won, and the people now waited with excitement for the downfall of the alien invader.

Finally, the day and time was upon us. We travelled into the wilderness where the Games would be, and were greeted on our arrival by Cell itself. Our not-so-merry band was composed of your Grandpa, most of your uncles, the grown-up Trunks… and little me. The upjumped squire to the warriors I lined up with, dwarfed by the simple yet bulky armour I'd asked your Uncle Piccoyo for. Even Sixteen, now repaired, came to help us in honour of his fallen friends and the mercy your Uncle Krillin had shown them; Krillin's hope the Dark Wizard's creations could be redeemed and freed of the curse was well-placed indeed. We were an imposing sight for any warrior to face off against to be sure, but Cell only had eyes for your Grandpa.

Unlike the rest of the land, now readying to feast and celebrate the sure result, I was nervous. And still Grandpa said not to worry, all was in hand, yet he would tell no one the secret.

Of course, we weren't the only challengers. How could we forget the Greatest Warrior in All the Land, Mr. Satan? The first time I ever met your Gramps he called me an idiot for not knowing who he was. How's that for a first impression? We were even called reckless by the bards accompanying him, and they composed rude songs calling us weak. We'd get caught in the crossfire if we weren't careful, we were told. _On your heads be it_.

We thought the same of them in return - merely fools and jesters. Mr. Satan knew no Words, he would be powerless in this fight and unable to defend his followers. Still, as much as we wanted to protect them from harm, we knew any life the Chimera stole would be restored if Grandpa could win, so we did not expend any effort shooing them away.

Your Gramps, great showboat that he is, insisted on trying his luck against Cell first. The bards began their song, the Champion faced the monster down and roared… yet Cell simply breathed on him to throw him from the ring in seconds. Truly a court jester against a dragon. The bards were in shock. Surely this was a trick? A cheat? Your Gramps claimed the same, stammering his way through explaining witchcraft and explosion magics, but he wasn't as sure of the deception as he asserted.

Entertainment over, Grandpa and Cell readied themselves. Both were razor sharp - excited even - the Golden Knight of Legend trained onto the Chimera and ready to give his all. I felt it again then, that sense of hope he can bring out in you. He did in the land of Namek and he would do it again here for all of us. I now knew why Trunks believed in Grandpa so much without even meeting him - his mom and myself in the future would have spoken of him highly, weaving stories of his great battles and victories in a such a way you couldn't help but feel your heart rise.

One breath. The land stilled - and the clash began.

No one would believe the intensity of the battle from the stories and songs handed down from bard to bard. Though their tales were never an exaggeration. The speed, the force, the damage. The _noise_. Cell and your Grandpa's Words brought forth great power, shattering the ring and wilderness all around. The display was beyond most people's' limited imaginations, and nobody had ever seen the likes of it. But your Gramps had. He'd felt this kind of strength once before, many years ago, from the man who killed his master and left him for dead with just one Word. It was a type of magic, yes, but an ancient and visceral one, and he feared it greatly. He was quickly learning that the hope of the land was misplaced in him and he, like the rest of us, would have to put his hope in Grandpa too.

Watching their fight from a safe distance, your uncles gaped then whooped at the turn of events. They said they'd lost track of Grandpa in the fray, that he was awe-inspiring, truly the warrior of legend. _Were they joking?_ , I thought. I could follow easily, and what was more I could tell Grandpa wasn't matching Cell. He had to be holding back, maybe to surprise it. But that didn't make sense, why would he do that with so much at stake? Grandpa was inflicting damage but he looked to be tiring, whilst the Chimera used its blood magic to heal injury after injury.

One giant blast from Cell in defence and the ring was blown clean away, and whatever pretence of rules the Games had fled in the wake of the explosion. This was truly a fight to the death for both warriors.

Cell taunted your Grandpa as they broke apart, and we willed him to fight harder. Why wouldn't he? It didn't make sense to me. Grandpa was the strongest, the Golden Knight, and I was only a boy, and yet I was sure I could put up more of a fight that he was now –

Grandpa gave up.

He turned his back on the Chimera to return to us. I couldn't believe it, no one could. Grampa had been fighting his very best to no avail. I had overestimated him. If he couldn't win we were doomed. Yet, he was still smiling as though his loss was expected. He then let us all in on his trump card.

Me.

 _I_ was to defeat the Chimera. My hunch was right. I was only a boy yet my heritage and exposure to battle from such a young age had honed me. I had surpassed my father. Though there was one problem, one misstep in Grandpa's secret plan. In my desire to please him, I'd never truly told him how much I hated fighting.

In principle I was willing to. I had repeated as much to Grandpa over the three years, and the me in the future had fought monsters, too. But like Trunks, that Son Gohan had grown to be a different man to the man I would become. He never became a scholar - there was nowhere left to learn. He never got to catch criminals for fun nor have a chance to be the luckiest husband. And the very worst of all? He never got to be a Dad to the the most amazing little girl in all the world. I'm sure, as much as he cared for the Earth, the Son Gohan of the future did not want to be fighting as he died, and I knew at that young age I did not want that either.

Even so, despite my reluctance in that moment, Grandpa was right. If I wanted to grow up to be the scholar I always dreamed I could be, this time, _just_ this once, I needed to try and fight.

To everyone's shock I agreed and stepped forward to take up the hero's mantle from Grandpa. He even told me to enjoy myself. The Chimera laughed and laughed, anticipating a second round of entertainment. A snack before its main course and a chance to catch its breath. If the Golden Knight wanted to sacrifice his boy in vain that was his choice. It approached, completely recovered, and launched into its terrible onslaught.

The bards would tell tales of Cell's overwhelming power, how the poor boy would be tossed around like a ragdoll and they had averted their eyes from the sheer cruelty of it all. They couldn't see the truth; that blow for blow I was withstanding Cell better than Grandpa ever had. It landed some heavy hits and Words for sure, and even Uncle Piccoyo believed I was on the ropes, scolding your Grandpa. Yet smash after smash I stood up again and again, barely understanding how I could be so resilient. Slowly, your uncles came to realise that Grandpa was right. I was the only one who had a chance, I really _was_ a secret weapon. But not everything was going to plan.

For the first time, I was wrestling with a new fear - not in the same way as before, when I was scared for myself or my family and friends when fighting tooth and nail for our lives. This time I feared what _I_ could do. I knew I could end this miserable creature's life easily enough. It had killed many people and wanted to kill more. I could stop that. But was it right for me to pass such a judgement? Wouldn't that make me just as bad? I looked to my uncles on the hill for guidance. Trunks would have killed it without hesitation, and he was a good man. But Uncle Krillin had stayed his hand against the monsters, believing they could be reasoned with. The Chimera was also created by the Dark Wizard; maybe it could come to its senses? And maybe, just maybe, I didn't have to be a killer. My self-doubt stopped me from being as strong as I could be; I became slower, unresponsive. The tendrils of indecision creeped in.

I could not fight back.

My lack of enthusiasm frustrated Cell to no end. It wanted to fight me at full strength to humiliate your Grandpa, and to do so it realised it had to provoke me. It decided to torture me physically. What the bards say is true. Burning and branding me with his Words, fracturing bones with each strike and forcing dislocations as he squeezed me; aiming in such a way as to maximise my pain without killing me. Doing that to anyone, let alone a child, is immeasurably cruel. Cell hoped to reignite the flame of the Golden Knight I had tempered those past days. But its efforts were all in vain.

Still I could not fight back.

Failing to bring forth the rage it wanted from me, it turned it's attention to your Grandpa and Uncles, forcing them to fight for their lives against magic creatures of its own devising. The warriors struggled, close to death at times, fighting the replicants and Cell itself where I could not. Sixteen was all but destroyed in the fray, throwing his life away trying to protect us all. This horrid creature was going to kill everyone and yet, even as I willed it…

 _Still_ I could not fight back.

Hope was dwindling, the light fading.

Then came the greatest surprise. Your Gramps, still clinging to the sidelines in a show of defiance as the Champion of the People he would prove himself to be, did one of the bravest things I have ever seen to this day. Knowing in his hearts of hearts that these 'tricks' were real and truly understanding the mortal danger he was in, he approached what was left of the battlefield to bring me a dying Sixteen. The gentle giant had fought alongside us against orders, the faith Uncle Krillin had placed in him and his friends encouraging him to see the good in the world. And now he wanted to speak his last words to me.

Sixteen told me he understood. I was gentle, I valued life and didn't want to hurt anybody no matter their actions. But our words don't always work and sometimes, just sometimes, we have to go against our own rules to stand up for what is right. It is because I valued life that I must protect it.

And for that sentiment, Cell killed him.

Cell's final act of cruelty against its own brother pushed me over the edge. My resolve finally solidified, and the Golden Knight I had grown so used to as a power within me raged with fuel once again. I broke my limits, strength more than doubling in an instant, my Words now echoing around the sky like thunder to the lightning weaving new armour around me. In moments I destroyed the Chimera's familiars, saving your Grandpa and uncles.

For the first time, Cell was afraid; for the first time it _knew_ I could kill it.

…Sometimes, Pan, small people have big feelings. They're hard to explain if you've never had them before but you feel them just as much as any grownup can. I was barely ten years old and I had an angry feeling, more angry than I'd ever felt before. It clawed at my face and boiled inside, made an itch I had to scratch until _something_ bled. The calm control over the Golden Knight I'd gained with Grandpa the week before had slipped; I was taken over by it, drunk on my own power. I had hated Cell with all my heart for what it had done from the start, but now I let myself feel it, not caring if that was right or wrong to do. I wanted Cell to feel the same pain as all those people it had killed. I wanted Cell to pay.

Pursuing that desire was the worst thing I could have done. It may be hard to put aside how terrible and wicked someone is but don't chase what I did then, Pan. Always be quick, without passion for blood. In wanting my own revenge on Cell I let my new strength and huge feelings cloud my judgement. They fueled me, yes, but the power it gives is not easy to stay or wrestle. It can - and will - consume you, as it nearly did me.

That day I toyed with Cell using my new-found strength in the same way it had toyed with me, ignoring the calls of your uncles to come to my senses in favour of the bloodrush in my ears. Why would I listen? I was finally enjoying this fight. Isn't that what your Grandpa had told me to do? But by not heeding their warnings I gave Cell time to think - to plan. One push away from me and it had the space and time to breathe and speak a deadly Word, an explosion I would never have been able to defend against. Grandpa, still tired from his struggles but knowing he could help, rushed in. And in doing so, Grandpa died.

The world stopped for me. In that one blast your Grandpa had sacrificed himself to save us all - to stop our land falling to the same fate as the old land of the Namekians. Because I did not want to control my emotions I had killed the Golden Knight of Legend. Even worse, Cell lived, coming back stronger still and now enraged, ready to end the world without hesitation.

Grandpa had been wrong to place his faith in me. For a moment I had had the upper hand, before losing it through folly. Now no one could stop it. The situation was hopeless.

With the fight taken out of me I felt every break and bruise, my left arm dislocated and damaged so badly it hung lifeless at my side. In an instant my resolve had shattered into pieces and I could barely muster the energy to stand, the magic of the Golden Knight now dulled again. It was too late. Cell was to have the last Word. The world shook, and I could do no more.

Now, in stories of monsters and knights and dragons, when all hope is lost, there comes a voice on the wind to help the hero, to tell them what they need to hear. Like in those fairy stories I had been sent to sleep with, it was then I heard a voice - your Grandpa Goku's voice - speaking to me from beyond the veil. He told me not to give up, that I still had the strength - I just had to find it within. I tried to apologise but he shushed me. After everything he still believed in me, he still had hope in his little boy. All I had to do was have that same faith in myself. I chose to believe him one last time and, legs shaking, squared up to the Chimera.

Cell's final deadly Word howled towards me like a nightmare yet with one steadying breath, one hand outstretched and Grandpa's unwavering faith I dug deep. And yelled. And matched it.

Our struggle was like two great dragons, both blue and yellow, claws locked in a stalemate, their clash carving great canyons in the landscape around us. Whichever of us faltered first would be instantly overcome in the wake of the others' Word, their cause lost. There was no going back. Your uncles fled for their own safety and I was left completely alone to face this creature, seemingly nothing but the roar of the dragons for comfort. Barely a ten year-old boy, the fate of the realm on my shoulders. But I wasn't alone, not really. Your Grandpa was with me, urging me on. _Dig deep Gohan_ , he said, _just let it go!_

Your Uncle Vegeta could see my resolve returning and thought fast, using the last of his voice to scream at Cell, dividing its attention. It worked! Cell's focus slipped. One chance. I pushed as hard as I could, the final charge, and a power I would never have otherwise believed myself capable of burst forward as I screamed.

I felt its last attempts at resistance reverberate back - less the wall it had been and now a weak struggle, my words a jet of sand, of glass shards, forcing their way between its fingers, into and through it. One great dragon swallowed the other whole and it was done. The evil was vanquished, and everything turned to silence and stillness once again. The land was safe.

Cell was gone.

In that moment I was too exhausted to think beyond an overwhelming sense of relief, the magic dispelled and I was left numb. Your uncles surrounded and congratulated me, helping me from the pile I'd collapsed into to take me home to rest. We'd forgotten all about the bards, cowering away, unable to find their own words to explain the cataclysm they'd borne witness to. Luckily, someone was on hand with their own story to spin and embellishments to boot. Your Gramps would take the credit for the win and become the most lauded man in the land. It may be a lie he told, but it was a good lie; it saved me, your Grandma and Uncle Goten from a lot of trouble. Besides, his claim to heroism wasn't a complete falsehood. He had brought me Sixteen's wise words that allowed me to tap into a strength I never knew I had. For that, and for many, many brave deeds thereafter, your Gramps is every part the hero he's praised to be; just not in the ways the world has been taught.

We prepared to send Trunks off the next day, our mood sombre for the loss of your Grandpa. Unlike the Chimera's other victims he would choose not return to us for some time, travelling beyond the veil to find new masters and secrets to bring home one day, trusting his mere absence would keep the peace - and it would, for a time. As Trunks had learnt from my counterpart, I had a learnt a lot from him in turn about what a knight could be. We would meet again, and we would come to learn his experience with us allowed him both to defeat 17 and 18 in his own time and prevent Cell from ever appearing. Seventeen and Eighteen here would awake with all of Cell's victims, their curse now lifted and freedom granted, and would fight alongside us to defend the land in future battles, their help indispensable. Uncle Krillin's decision to follow his gut and stay his hand that day was the right one in the end.

For many years after I'd believe my father not just spoke to me but returned in that final moment, both of us working in tandem to deliver that final blow. Of course in reality the overwhelming strength was all from me - I just needed to find the balance in myself, absorb my father's words and have conviction, and like the boy from the future all those years ago, have hope we'd prevail.

There once was a boy called Son Gohan, and _he_ defeated Cell.

* * *

Maybe you find it a little galling that I sent my daughter to sleep with stories like this. In truth Pan would have heard this story and others in a fragmented fashion as we adults spoke, especially given who both her grandfathers are, so having a coherent (if slightly fantastical version) was helpful for context.

For her to know the truth of the struggle was important to me, even if it meant she had to keep a big secret. She had to know the magnitude of the work we did and understand the danger, lest she idolise it. After the harrowing childhood I had starting at four years old I never wanted anyone to go through the same. My little brother would not escape my fate, dragged into a conflict and quite literally told at not even seven years of age he was the last line of defence for the world, possibly even the Universe. I never wanted Pan to see the horrors I and Goten hold. But I am not a fool, and since she showed interest in fighting we let her learn, encouraging and supporting her beyond mere drilling so she could keep her head should peacetime break. I kept her away from serious conflict until she was fifteen. That's all I could manage.

Sometimes we're thrust into situations we'd rather not be in, forcing us to act against our better nature. In those moments the greatest challenge is not the monster we're facing but the battle within ourselves, our fear of losing our sense of self in the ensuing mess. Though I can assure you, if in those times we can hold onto hope - whether that is hope in the truth of a story we were told long ago, hope that others can do good and _be_ good _despite_ what circumstances say, hope in the potential of those closest to us even as their doubts rage and even gain a glimmer of hope in ourselves - well, like Bulma in the future, we can do what we believe right now to be impossible.

What I did as a child may have been impressive. It may be beyond what many full Earthlings would ever be capable of, and it may have all worked out in the end. But it is not right to hide behind the courage of children. No one who learns any of the techniques in the rest of this book is under any obligation to lay their life on the line should the world be in danger. I would however like some people to make that choice, a _real_ choice that neither I nor my brother and daughter ever had, and as a consequence I hope my grandchildren, should I ever have any, will have that same free choice, too.

It is _my_ hope now that, despite the difficulty and despite how impossible it sounds, you will now show that same courage to learn, to step up, to rely on your own strength - and defend the Earth.

 _[ Figure 1 ]_

 _[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/170511548927/2point0#one ]_

 _Myself, Little Trunks and Big Trunks on the day of the latter's departure after the Cell Games. Three pictures polaroids were taken - one for me (the image above), one for Little Trunks as a surprise for when he was older, and the third for Big Trunks, though he said he'd pass it to his mom. Because of that, I gave him the one where he had the biggest smile._

* * *

This chapter is dedicated to Android Sixteen.

" _It is because we value life that we must protect it."_


	15. 2-1 Autoception

_**2-1 - Autoception**_

* * *

 **Warning! The following section contains exercises that, whilst seemingly mild at this point, should not be undertaken without explicit permission from a medical practitioner. The reader proceeds at their own risk.**

 _Helpful prequisites: 1.3 (on priors), 1.4 (on centring, posture and breath)_

* * *

Ask any of Pan's students and the enduring myth of a ki-user is of an old man meditating under a waterfall, hovering three feet in the air. Sometimes he has birds whispering in his ears and deer bringing him berries. It has taken him a lifetime to get to this proficiency and he is full of ancient wisdom, speaking in riddles to those acolytes who seek him out.

If you were to ask my family to paint a picture of a ki-user you'd hear stories of mischief, explosions, footprints on ceilings, winning fights with startled traffic, and overall a group of loveable idiots trying their very best to muddle their way through life. In fact, without a doubt Pan's school marks a level of organisation that leaves me uncomfortable in its unfamiliarity.

The true life of a ki-user can exist at both extremes and usually lies somewhere in the middle. With enough patience (or - in the case of children - exposure) anyone can learn to utilise their ki. There is no requirement to live a cloistered life, nor partake in a boisterous routine of gruelling physical activity and grand tournaments. Although, to start, we will begin with a number of activities mostly resembling the former. Please be assured that by chapter three you will be more active. For now, you can stay in your reading nook - centred with good posture of course - and we shall get to know our genki.

For an ability that tends to be seen as an outwardly projected one - affecting great speed and strength, creating ranged attacks, sharing energy and thoughts with others, flight, it is remarkably reliant on our inner lives and senses to work. As we have discussed in section 1.3 genki is responsible for helping maintain homeostasis in the body - that is, the series of processes keeping us ticking over and our bodies working optimally - and if ki is going to be used these messages embedded in genki must be read, understood and then hijacked.

To use ki then one must first be on top of everything we're feeling internally. We must be connected with ourselves and understand our body's changing needs. We must attune ourselves to a little-known set of senses - autoception.

When the blurb of this book said I'd be teaching you to attend to the sixth sense, I made sure the copy-editor used quotation marks. I do wonder if this seeming oversight in saying 'sixth' was picked up by the more savvy reader. In truth we naturally have far more than five senses. Depending on how you divide them, they can be almost too numerous to bother counting.

First we have the more familiar exteroceptive senses; vision, sound, touch, smell, taste - the basics most people have and what we're often taught as our only connection with the outside world. Combining all these does not give you a full picture of yourself in the world, however. For example - tilt your head. What sense is telling you your world is now on its side? It certainly isn't taste, smell or sound. Vision? Well no - if you close your eyes you still know your head's tilted. Is it touch? Again no, there's nothing 'touching' your skin to tell you where your head is. Your sense of balance (equilibrioception if we're to get technical) allows you to perceive your orientation in space, direction of motion and acceleration. It is a sense governed by the inner ear. Three loops (the semicircular canals) contain fluid and the fluid moves, like water sloshing in a bucket, triggering hairs in the canals. The movements of the hairs are interpreted by the brain to tell you which way up you are. Like all senses, balance is sensitive to disruption; you can make yourself dizzy by spinning, and an infection in the inner ear can leave you with severe vertigo as these tubes become inflamed and unable to function normally.

The sense of balance is important in battle - allowing you to right yourself when hurtling towards the floor. Sometimes though being able to put this sense to one side is very useful, lest the spinning and quick changes in direction cause you to feel ill. Dancers and ice skaters mitigate this effect by keeping their head as still as possible and whipping around at the last moment, though this takes some skill. Even then with the ability of flight many ki-users still orientate themselves as though standing to reduce their balance warnings. A smart ki-user can suppress these warnings, manipulating messages embedded in genki to trick the body and mind to being comfortable tumbling. Being able to engage an enemy whilst upside down equally well can put you at an advantage as it means you are truly unpredictable and difficult to counter.

Another quick test - hold your hand out to the side, close your eyes, then bring your hand in to touch the tip of your nose. Could you do it? Most people can. How? You can't see your hand, nor are you using your sense of touch until the very last moment. Again this is a further sense, proprioception, the sense of where our body is in space relative to itself. Teenagers are often extremely clumsy because their growth spurts throw out their sense of proprioception - they literally believe they are smaller than they truly are and are therefore more likely to trip or fumble objects as their sense of self is slow to adjust.

Other exteroceptive senses include detecting changes in temperature (thermoception) and pain (nociception), again both of which can be manipulated (against advice) with ki. It is not just the adrenaline rush that can keep me upright and on task with a shattered arm!

The result of these senses are very conscious and immediate. We can have _sub_ conscious reactions to them (picking up something hot results in a quick drop governed by reflexes, the signals only reaching the spinal column instead of the brain to speed up the reaction) but on the whole we have a vivid, conscious experience of them. They are noisy, and as such tapping into the genki messaging associated with them is very difficult for a new ki-user.

The autoceptive senses are a different ball game altogether.

Remember when we were discussing priors in 1.3? The idea that your body holds some kind of internal understanding and expectation of what its optimum state is supposed to be? This ranges across a number of systems including internal temperature, carbon dioxide levels in the blood, blood pressure, sense of hydration and sense of fullness. Occasionally these will come to our conscious attention (a sense of suffocation, a need to go to the bathroom) but mostly they are ticking in the background. They're not as loud as the exteroceptive senses, but the genki messages are there all the same, freer to detect and be read in the quiet, meaning understanding the autoceptive senses is a good a place as any to begin to detect genki.

Tight priors govern homeostasis, the balance the body wishes to return to and is most comfortable functioning at internally. Briefly, for the body to maintain homeostasis our senses must record observations about our body's current state, compare them to the prior, and then calculate the difference - the surprise - between the observed and expected value. The direction of the surprise guides what action needs to be taken for the body to return to homeostatic equilibrium, and the magnitude how rapid that reaction must be. For an exteroceptive sense like pain it could be a command to reduce the sensation, such as dropping the hot pan. The same happens with the body's internal senses - autoception.

To be consciously aware at all times of autoceptive senses would be such a huge cognitive load - can you imagine having to manually remember to quicken your breath when you're doing exercise? Or momentarily pump your heart faster when you go from a sitting to standing position? I don't know about you but I would _very_ quickly be a puddle on the floor (also, apologies if talk of breathing manually made you conscious of your breath. Also, sorry if that apology did, too! Or blinking! …I should stop).

Most of these sensory inputs travel from the body to the brain via the vagus nerve, running from the head, following the jugulars into the chest, branching out to all the organs and finally reaching down into the lower intestines. The vagus nerve gathers information about how full your stomach is, how your liver's doing, the carbon dioxide levels in your blood, your blood pressure, how your kidneys and bladder are feeling and so on, and delivers it to the insula in the brain ( a region which also governs your emotional responses). Genki, of course, takes this same information and passes it around the body laterally, loosely following the flows of e.g. breath and blood, regulating priors and coaxing the changes that cells must undertake to keep those individual building blocks working as a unit, as a person.

 _[ Figure 1 ]_

 _[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/170728367087/2point1#one ]_

Some individuals can manipulate those priors and this is known to science (though not yet though the mechanism of ki). There have been documented cases of yoga practitioners willing their body temperature to change by a fraction of a degree by nudging that prior written in genki. Now, a fraction of a degree doesn't sound impressive, but body temperature is a tightly controlled prior, with a very narrow precision in terms of how well-regulated it needs to be and how well it is measured. Thus, to move the prior by even a little is a feat in itself. This ability to consciously change homeostatic priors is far more than we need right now - we 'just' need to be able to tap into that pathway to find and hijack free genki for other purposes.

Autoceptive sensations will come to conscious attention at some point to enable us to act, but the threshold for when we have that awareness, and how well we can consciously choose to attend is dependent on the individual. As these senses are linked to genki, we will work to enhance that autoceptive awareness and begin to get a feel for our genki - its flow, messages and the manipulatable blank space it contains.

(NB we are not aiming to be constantly aware of these sensations, but only to become adequately sensitive to them, to have the ability to access and read their meaning when we wish. As you could imagine, to be aware of your heartbeat at all times could cause great distress!)

We have, in section 1.4, covered the concept of centring. In that case, we were defining correct posture and breath, physical aspects of our body that - shape and ability willing - we can improve to heighten our ability to access the centre of our genki. If you recall I reminded you to practice that over the course of the last few sections ready. So. Let us _finally_ begin.

There are three areas of autoception we will be attempting to improve: Insight, precision and discernment, which I shall define as we go.

 **Exercise 2.1.1: Assessing and boosting autoceptive insight**

Insight is exactly how it sounds. How in tune are you with your body naturally? We want to improve your ability to tap into those senses, the usually subconscious messages, as this will open up the pathway to ki manipulation.

A note - you may consider the following a form of mindfulness or meditation training, and that's true after a fashion. Do not skip this section if you are proficient in mindfulness, however. There is a subtle difference to be, ah, _mindful_ of, and I shall get to that later.

First, please centre yourself and sit in good posture. Is this essential right now? No, but it's a very good habit to develop. This exercise can also be undertaken lying down when trying to sleep or as you wake in the morning, so there is no excuse not to start.

Consider your body as a whole. What internal messages are currently piquing your attention? Are you too hot or cold? Thirsty? Hungry? Exhausted? Are you out of breath or is your heart thumping? If there's nothing that's okay, too - it may be you don't need to attend to any needs at the moment.

Now to start actively attending. Starting at one end and focussing on one part at a time, ask yourself the following kinds of questions - effectively, hunt for symptoms of change in the body that indicate its changing status. For example:

How do your eyes feel? Are they dry? Itchy? Watery? Aching? Are the lids heavy? What could this mean in terms of tiredness and dehydration? Or eye strain? Should you rest?

Ask the same of the inside of your nose and mouth when breathing and your lungs. How is the air for you? Too dry, too humid? Can you bring the air all the way into your lungs or does it get stuck in the chest due to the position you're in or an illness? How deep are you breathing now and what do you default to? Clavicular or abdominal breathing? (Trick question - you know which one it should be.) How much can you inhale in one go? What nostril is your dominant one right now? Is your mouth too dry? Your lips? How easy is swallowing rfor you? Are you salivating because there's food nearby and you're hungry (even if you don't feel the need to eat) or should you being feeling hungry if you haven't eaten enough today?

Continue down and down. What about your heart beat? Is it fast? Slow? Pounding? You may not be able to feel your heartbeat without touching your chest - please attempt this exercise without searching for a pulse! Just ask yourself what you can sense naturally. Next move down. How does your stomach feel? Full from a meal? Empty? Causing queasiness? What could that mean? How full is your bladder? Do you need to go to the bathroom?

Laboriously attending to these symptoms of needs can help your brain interpret them as they float near the surface of your consciousness.

Now, to perform a second pass. This time actively centre yourself and breathe in such a way to begin detecting that internal flow of genki drawing upwards and around the body. Using the square breathing method as outlined in 1.4 will help, though you need to ease off to a more natural breathing pattern eventually - holding your breath for long periods of stillness doesn't help when trying to get on with your day! Then begin making those same observations again, paying mind to the filamentary flow of ki through the body, how it diverts with purpose with your request for information, how the wider free aura is recruited to take on this task. Think of that genki as a bubbling or wave or burgeoning sense of information, intent, of vibrancy, that turns to clarity as you grasp it, and you'll find it.

The second pass is difficult, but taking the time to make these observations will be the start of improving your autoceptive sense, and by linking these observations to genki you will be taking your very first steps in ki-control.

An important final note - if at any point you are finding you are concentrating too much on your bodily sensations, thinking about it to the point of distress, please stop. The goal of increasing autoceptive insight is not to be aware of all parts of your body at all times, but is about being able to access this information should you need to. Please stop if you are finding the exercise too salient - you probably have enough insight already.

 **Exercise 2.1.2: Improving autoceptive precision through the breath.**

With autoceptive insight improving the next area to work on is precision. How accurate, objectively, are your insights? This could be hard to determine from the first exercise alone - only you have the ability to judge whether you _truly needed_ to make okonomiyaki at midnight again (and not offer me any, _Videl_ ). But there are a couple of things you can try outside of a clinical environment to assess how good your insights truly are.

The first is a breathing exercise, and the actual test will need a good friend who either knows what you are trying to do or is used to your many eccentricities and is willing to help. To test, you will need a thick straw (like a milkshake straw) and some filter pads, or anything you can use to apply resistance to breathing. It could be something as simple as gripping in the straw tighter in a repeatable fashion for example. Breathe _out_ through the straw once without any resistance to gauge the difficulty, then ask your friend to add resistance. You must guess how much resistance they've added. Do this around ten to twenty times at the most.

It is important your friend gives you _no_ feedback at this point. Instead after each trial rate how confident you are - from "I'm sure I know how much resistence was there" to "I just guessed". I beg of you, do not try this exercise when breathing in! You don't want to starve yourself of oxygen! Make sure you catch your breath in between. Also, be careful should you have any general breathing issues! Please ask your medical practitioner before attempting any of this.

On your own, run this exercise yourself. Learn the different stages of resistances, the pressure on your chest and your lungs' expansion, testing yourself each day for ten minutes at the very most. Then, maybe a week or two later, ask your friend to perform the same test. Has your precision improved? How about your confidence?

The breath is the largest, conscious control of flow we have in the body and therefore understanding our breath is integral for learning ki control.

 **Exercise 2.1.3: Improving autoceptive precision through the heart**

Our next task is similar, though a little harder in my opinion. In this case you will be monitoring your heartbeat, a more subtle sensation as there is not the same strong physical movement as with breath. This exercise you can perform on your own. It will require a high precision sports watch that can count heartbeats over a set time interval (in this case a minute). Capsule Corporation does indeed make a watch and chest strap with this function included. Whilst it may seem a little daring of me to suggest you patronise a company I am tangentially involved with, I assure you that Capsule Corporation has the best on the market for this task - in fact, it was designed for it! Also, be cautious of the accuracy of some sport watches - they can under- and over-report the heart beats per minute so check reviews. It is imperative you are able to get an accurate reading, and a chest band will help with that. Ideally you'd use a medical device but I believe I am the only person to possess one of those for idle tinkering - who is also not a hypochondriac (I like to think).

First sit still and quiet for a time to relax, then set the timer and counter running over a minute. In this time you need to count the number of heartbeats you believe you've had, then record your guess and how confident you are. Perform a few more trials then check your results to gauge your accuracy and whether your confidence was warranted.

The idea here is not to feel your pulse, or sit in such a way that you can physically feel your pulse beating in your legs or feet or hands or ears. It is to guess from your own internal clock (tapping into that genki flow) to detect when your heart is beating. It _is_ difficult. That's the point. As with insight some people are good at this off the bat, others terrible. That's okay, the important part is to try and improve.

To get the ball rolling on improvement perform a little light exercise to physically feel your heartbeat in your chest or ears and run the counting task, recording your confidence, again. This should be a lot easier. As your pulse fades to normal use your fingers on your neck or wrist to help this training portion of the exercise. Like when breathing, you are trying to marry up the beat that you know is present to the sensation in your genki telling the your brain and the rest of you it is beating. After a few weeks training - again for only a few minutes a day - you should find your ability to tap into the heartbeat at will greatly improved upon repeated testing.

These exercises have the dual benefit of improving both your precision and your awareness of your accuracy - otherwise known as your autoceptive discernment. The discernment is just as important as the accuracy in some respects; you need to have confidence in your abilities, and your repeated training will enable you get an honest sense of how well you're truly progressing at developing your conscious autoceptive senses. Being terrible at autoception at first is perfectly reasonable - as long as your discernment quickly adjusts!

Autoceptive discernment was the reason I stressed individuals with previous mindfulness or meditation training should not skip this section. Whilst these techniques focus on gaining insight in particular, they do not emphasise ensuring discernment matches precision.

But surely similar previous training can help? Well, yes and no. You may notice I did not go out of my way to suggest a calming, music-filled atmosphere with candles and cushions and incense when discussing these exercises, instead keeping it rather clinical - almost cold. This isn't my background in science dictating a preference. I'd rather be under the trees in the quad outside my office, listening to the breeze pass through the leaves and let that dictate my pace. You are welcome to add that sort of decoration to your training if you so wish, but do heed my warning.

For those that have previously undergone mindfulness training, whether that is through counselling or yoga or martial arts, there is a perceived ability to be better at autoception than the average person. Afterall, practitioners of martial arts and yoga do a lot of centering, breathing and attending to the body, so must be better at understanding their autoceptive senses by default, correct?

In these 'experienced' groups there is a propensity to over-report confidence in precision in these abilities. The initial training does make it easier to understand these exercises and feel comfortable and relaxed performing such tasks, but when starting autoceptive work these individuals _are not statistically better with their insight than the rest of the population_. Do not be caught out by your own expectations!

Having bad discernment is positively dangerous for ki-work, and why it is important to really reflect on how accurate your self-reporting is across all exercises, and to work to correct for it. If you believe that you are better at autoception than you truly are you will move onto the next sections before you're ready. If you are unable to read, and therefore write intents onto your genki correctly, this at the luckiest will lead to ineffectual ki-work - using far too much genki to produce the same result - and at worse will leave your ki muddled and cause you great harm.

Sounds far-fetched? One intent we will be relying heavily on is _push_. If you are unable to direct _push_ correctly, believing you have (a reasonable for a new user) 99% accuracy in directing it rather than the true pitiful 90%, that 9% mismatch could begin to tear you apart on a cellular level.

Without you knowing.

Until it's too late.

Please do these exercises.

Many of Pan's earliest students that accepted her offer of ki-training did so because they have an interest in meditation and mindfulness from martial arts training. Others were complete novices, only taking to the Pan Fighting Network for fitness reasons and by chance attending a local workshop where Pan spotted them. With few exceptions in either direction she repeatedly found her novice students were more diligent learning autoception - the concept being so alien to them. Her more 'experienced' students were impatient, more likely to do the wrong thing, skip out on training and, when she tested them herself, found they had been over-reporting their abilities. Such is the importance of adhering to honesty for efficiency and safety, no matter their age or stature within their respective traditions she would send them back to the first session. They only argue once; when it comes to a head and Pan must assert her expertise and authority, she can summon her Grandmother's temperament.

 _[ Figure 2 ]_

 _[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/170728367087/2point1#two ]_

It can be upsetting to find your twenty years of meditation experience may not have been subconsciously helping to develop your autoceptive senses, I understand completely. Remember however that meditation, drilling in martial arts and mindfulness all have slightly different goals than specifically developing your autoceptive sense and you will find other tasks simpler. On the plus side for everyone else, this means you do not have to have twenty years of mediation experience to be good at ki-work and to develop your internal, then external, ki-sense. How lucky!

What level of autoceptive sense can you expect to reach as your ki-sense grows over the years? If I wanted to I can accurately count my heartbeat even when on the move, give a rough estimate of my elevation above sea level by monitoring how subtly out of breath I feel, can tell you how drunk I am even when drunk (a very rare event for me to be in that state I assure you), can tell if I'm developing a fever… and I can definitely decide whether I am going to need to use the bathroom before leaving the I be attending to my body I know exactly what it needs and can consciously preempt these things. And, because I can access that information through reading my own genki, I can shout that information down. I can effectively suppress sensation more than non-ki-users ever could to the point of danger.

To expand, genki maintains homeostatic equilibrium yes, but it is an allostatic system, allowing deviation from the optimum state to preempt upcoming change. For example, when in danger my heart rate rises to get oxygen and glucose to my muscles to help me escape. I also feel fear, which is detrimental to my ki-use, and I'd like to stop that. How? Ask yourself, when we run from danger, do we run because we feel fear, or feel fear because we run? The truth is both; emotion and physical response go in tandem. If I can intercept my heartbeat messages then I can counteract the response and slow my heart even when in danger, and suppress that fear. Without genki interception we usually slow our heart rate by consciously slowing our breath, but with ki I can remove all facets of the fear response entirely. This restores yuuki and allows me to access those higher levels of ki ability again.

I can even expand this ability to ignore exteroceptive senses like pain and temperature - however be aware you are blocking only the sensation and not the effect. I could ignore the fire I'm walking through, but without a barrier against flame I would still burn. I can ignore pain to stand and fight but my bones would still be broken. I could use this ability to stare at the Sun without need to squint, but I would still destroy my retinas. But we will discuss how to do this in a _measured_ fashion in a later chapter.

The breath and the blood are the two fast-flowing systems in our body genki has an affinity with and are therefore crucial to understand to begin to read and talk to our genki. By being able to read these two changing flows and understand the associated triggers in ki, we can in turn influence them back. Soon we will be completely hijacking genki for our own purposes.

In the next section we will be looking around us to sense other people's ki. By reading this, especially finding and seeing the flow in the aura of others, we will gain a greater understanding of our own and the steps we will need to take towards manipulating it outright.


	16. 2-2 Sensing Ki Externally

_**2-2 - Sensing Ki Externally**_

* * *

 **Warning! The following section contains exercises that may cause nausea, dizziness and vertigo, severe migraine-like aura, pain and even fainting. No exercise should be undertaken without explicit permission from a medical practitioner. The reader proceeds at their own risk.**

 _Prerequisites: Exercises in 1.3, 2.1. Additionally material from throughout chapter 1 is referenced._

* * *

If there comes a point when working through this textbook you find the exercises too wild, too hard or beyond your interest, push through the first exercise in this section before closing the book for good and I will be content. Admitting I'd be happy with you learning just the basics won't sit well with my publisher, of course, but if the world's inhabitants were able to feel at least the ki of others close to them consciously and reliably, I truly (and possibly naïvely) believe we will be brought closer as a people. That ability to peer through the window into the inner lives of those around us is there ready to be tapped by you.

We shall now learn how to sense the ki of others.

In the last section (2.1) we covered autoception - the internal sense, and learnt to consciously read the messages moving throughout the body that keep us functioning as a single organism. Remember those messages are written as intents (a form of programming) on the genki released from our centre. Also recall some genki leaves the body to form an aura (section 1.5). The aura reaches out to others near us to facilitate subconscious social interactions,like passing on reassurances or warnings of danger, helping to create a sense of a person's emotions and motives beyond what mere visual clues can provide. In effect, the messaging between auras supports the remarkable empathic abilities we possess as a social species.

For ki-sensers in auratic contact and feeling mutually open with others, it is natural to pick up nuance in someone else's genki - not just their strong ki-signature impacting on your ki-sense but some of their open, intended actions and the emotions they wear on their sleeves. As that closeness in feeling deepens the reading ability can extend to abstract thoughts we wish to share. Taken to the extreme auras will become inextricably intertwined and a ki-senser's genki ignores some of its own checks and balances with friendly genki, treating another person very much an extension of the self. We can in effect pass exteroceptive sensation like touch, proprioception, even vision to others when we are lost in them. This is beyond the mere heartbeat and breath synchronisation between two partners. In short - for those who can perfect the ability, ki-sense at its height and pushed to its limits can enable a telepathic closeness no other ability can.

Though the above heavy nuances are only possible to detect in auratic contact, remember the centre is forever in contact with the ki-field, drawing up particles energy from it (1.7, 1.9). That interaction is not without consequence. It disturbs the 'surface' of the field, vibrating it, and that vibration - propagating outwards instantaneously as reactions down there are wont to do, can be detected by others whose attention is in tune with the surface. A practised enough ki-senser can hypothetically read a ki-signature, coloured by their most major intents, from the other side of the Universe.

I hope you can understand _why_ then I believe this ability is such a world-alterer. Having the coveted ability to fly, an ability I'm sure in part attracted you in part to this book, allows us to see the world below from a different perspective. Having the ability to read another's ki enables us to see _from all perspectives_.

Those giddy prospects are unfortunately a ways off for a novice. Getting to grips with the world closest to us will do for now. We shall discuss the differences between the two types of sensing in this section through a series of exercises increasing in difficulty. Whilst complete mastery of each exercise is not required before moving on, please try for a hint of success first - for the impatient I will indicate when you can start trying the next. You must also be at least proficient at autoceptive insight (2.1.1) and discernment abilities (2.1.2 and 2.1.3) before trying these exercises. Without those skills enabling you to identify your own genki's noise reliably, your attempts will be a messy, uphill struggle. Lastly, these are basic exercises that like autoception I recommend you revisit often to ensure your proficiency in connecting to your ki, the ki of others and the ki-field.

 **Choosing a target**

Before we start outright I want to discuss the set up needed for this exercise - some of which may seem obvious to you but from experience won't be to everyone - and what you can expect.

The easiest way to begin to sense ki is to be in auratic contact with someone. Ideally they will be a willing and patient participant in your studies, a person who will move around the room at your command, and are happy for you to slink away to pastures unknown whilst they remain in a tight location for what could be an hour or more.

However I am aware many of you will be working alone or in secret. This is fine and the same exercises can be performed, you will just have to adhere to someone unsuspecting's timetable.

Your helper (or target) must be someone known to you and at least neutral to friendly with you. The more familiar you are with them and their presence, particularly in terms of emotional closeness, the easier this will be. A partner, family member you genuinely like or a friend would be perfect, though a pleasant enough neighbour will suffice. This person should either be in the next room (within your home or an adjacent neighbour's) at a distance of three to five metres. This separation is just enough for two median-average Earthling auras to barely overlap. Remember, genki without an intent to interact with the physical world will not be hindered by something as trivial as a wall - however vision and sound is blocked by those, two cues you may use to subconsciously cheat.

Note: whilst we do love our pets and they particularly love us, this will be far easier by orders of magnitude to only practice on humans to begin with. Any kind of human will be perfect - using someone from the anthropoidal, teratoidal, zoomorphic or even (part-)alien subgroups won't help or hinder you, neither will your own subgroup.

Ensure for the first exercise at least that your target is the closest person to you to allow their ki-signature to dominate your senses. In most contexts and environments this is a fair assumption to make and is will be the assumption we will make to help isolate another's genki from our own. I emphasize here the word _most_. If you are attempting this exercise at the back of one of my lectures: one, please don't - as boring as I or the material can get I _am_ trying to impart on you important knowledge so I would be grateful for your attention and two, even in the expansive Miguel Hall at UoSC the brightest ki-signature you'll be picking up won't be the object of your affection five rows in front, but me. Hello!

 **Where and how will I 'see' ki?**

This is an interesting question and the precise answer will rely on your level of experience, your brain's plasticity (ability to adapt) and some individual quirks, and this will change over time.

For most of you this will be a brand new conscious experience and will be bizarre to say the least. Thankfully there analogous situations with other senses that can elucidate. Sometimes individuals without much visual experience - say, are born with or develop cataracts very early - can have medical interventions to restore, greatly enhance or outright give sight. Equivalent interventions like cochlear implants can do the same for those born without hearing to provide some semblance of sound.

When the processing for these senses is suddenly required due to a new type of information appearing in the brain, the brain's underdeveloped architecture in these regions warps the perception of the information. To explain - we don't just experience the raw input we take in (see section 1.6 on colour processing). For those with all their senses intact, the world the brain shows us has already been neatly divided into individual shapes and sounds, distances, colours, names, etc. Many of us take the ability to match the sound of a human voice to a human face for granted - but for those who are gaining these senses the brain just does not have the previous experience to marry the two and the world is extremely confusing. Someone who has regained sight can easily tell the difference between a cube and a ball through touch, but would struggle to find the cube when _looking_ at the objects. Someone who is experiencing sound for the first time can be overcome with a sense of pain as the sensory information becomes beyond overwhelming.

Processing and gaining a conscious sense of ki then, when there is no or a very rudimentary architecture for it in the brain, can cause a similar confusion until the brain prunes and grows more connections between regions. As I've delved into before (sections 1,2, 1.6), for those coming to ki-sense later in life the mind will process the information as a mix of exteroceptive sensation and thought. For those young enough (or with a greater brain plasticity) an entirely different sense will eventually develop; although when trying to describe what they're sensing these individuals will default to using the other senses and complex analogy, too.

Often the words "see" or "feel" (in an emotive sense) are used to describe sensing ki, though the choice of language is ultimately up to you. It sounds odd to say you can perceive a touch _on_ (rather than _from_ ) the other side of the room, but when sensing ki all bets are off. As sources of ki can be isolated in space much like vision can isolate objects (i.e. with a position and depth) it is sometimes considered a form of second sight, although not encumbered by the normal restrictions of vision. The accuracy of our visual depth perception is governed by the distance between our eyes, but for ki-sense only experience and ongoing practice draws the line. Further, our vision is limited to taking in the world in front of us with forward-facing eyes and is a defining feature of all subgroups of Earthling humans. The idea of seeing out the back of our heads in absurd - there is not black in our vision but literally nothing. In fact if you try and imagine the scene behind you (I'll wait…) your first instinct may be to picture what it would look like if you turned your head, rather than imagining the world around you as an unbroken whole. With ki-sense however, behind you is going to light up just as well as the front.

We don't just have one "layer" of perception, either. There are many "locations" within your perception that ki can be sensed. Usually the first place your sense develops is within the mind's eye, your internal world, before it moves to the external world.

As a one-off experiment, keep your eyes open and switch your attention into your headspace, your mind's eye. Often you'll find idle memories bubbling up from your subconscious or you'll have an earworm - one of those incessant songs stuck in your head. Now, imagine a cat in this space. Recall it as vividly as you can - its sound, its movement in a familiar environment. It exists in a space separate from the world your eyes are processing and, although you are imagining the cat in the same space as those earworms and memories, this conscious effort is easy to separate. It is as if they are on different layers of the mind. Your imagination is "closer" to you, those other thoughts triggered in other ways are more "distant" from you.

 _[ Figure 1 ]_

 _[_ _groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/170956049752/2point2#one_ _]_

Now imagine the same cat but in the world around you. No matter how well you can project the image of it running along a wall beside you is, you know it to be separate from the world you are truly seeing. This imagined cat is again closer to you than the external world. For those individuals with synaesthesia you will know that the synaesthetic responses are very close to those automatic thoughts (if internal) or very close to your perception (if projected). That is the same with ki-sense - it is extremely close to those automatic thoughts and the external world (behind even the synaesthetic response), and far from your imagination. The difference between imagining sensing ki and actually sensing ki is pretty much as strong as imagining seeing a cat and genuinely seeing one. You won't mistake the two.

(As a curious side note, not everyone will be able to do all of the above; around 2% of the population do not have a mind's eye, known as aphantasia. Being aphantastic will not hinder your progress in sensing ki; although you may not directly "see" ki in the mind's eye your gut reaction will remain.)

No matter where ki appears in the internal or external representation of the world around you, there are some constants. The ability to localise sources of ki-signatures, your _acuity_ , will come first before your depth perception and the representation will broadly mimic (though not limited to the visual) the image of the world I painted in section 1.2. Further, whilst you can go to great lengths to describe the ki-signatures of everyone you meet, you will not be able to get a explanable handle on your own ki-signature straight away - save a sense of uncanny familiarity. As our own ki forms a background to our lives it becomes the 'default', much in the same way we believe ourselves and those in the local areas to be the only people in the world without an accent (it may be buried deep under my tutoring, but my Paozu accent can apparently surface at times). Though, unlike an insubtractable accent, you will eventually learn to suppress your ki and thus sense the world with and without it to gauge the difference your ki causes. As a consequence of our own ki interfering, we do not have a completely objective sense of the ki of others; whilst I can discuss the feel of someone's ki-signature with friends and family, there are subtle differences in how bright or colourful they present. The image below I was hoping would illustrate this, but not everyone took the task quite so seriously.

 _[ Figure 2 ]_

 _[_ _groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/170956049752/2point2#two_ _]_

 _I dreamt up this game well before starting research proper for Groundbreaking Science, some time in Age 785. The idea was for friends and family to choose the best way to represent the ki-signatures of people they know. Indeed, not everyone has an overwhelmingly strong visual sense and that is expressed above. Whilst I was hoping the image could display the similarities between parents and children and the possible variations in perception, a lack of participation (Trunks), collusion (Pan and Dad) and very probable delegation (Vegeta to I suspect Bra, with him at least having creative direction on two of images) have made that harder to see. Still, I hope you can appreciate how difficult it's been to work with these test subjects over the years._

You will find some beats of the ki-signature reliably correspond to intent, moods and indeed personality. Those threads have been put to bizarrely good use by my brother Goten who, if there is indeed an official playbook for ki-use I'm not privy too, has I'm sure invented most of the irreverent ones. As a case in point Goten found the perfect way to make an impression; at first tailoring cocktails at college parties, then later creating bespoke sweets and hot drinks to match individuals - for many the best they'd ever had by far. Now his entire business revolves around his knack for "taste profiling" in just twenty questions. The interrogation begins with reasonable, standard questions like "bitter or sweet?" and winds its way up to "I take you to a random place blindfolded. For ten million zeni, would you jump backwards?", changing completely for each person. His secret? The questions are all for the crowd's entertainment; more a patter to give him time to throw something tasty together. Instead he relies on reading ki-signatures (plus the hefty experience of trial and error used to develop his mental look-up table) to provide the ingredients list. Competitors have tried and failed to mimic his trick over the years, feverishly listening in on every profiling session customers willingly pay extra for and leaving frustrated, finding no pattern to the questions and results. Well, now I guess they can start to catch up. He could use the competition.

 **Exercise 2.2.1: Within Auratic Contact**

Now you know exactly _where_ and _what_ to "look" for, let's begin.

Please sit in a comfortable position (cross-legged, seiza, seated), centre yourself and calm your breath. At first access your own bodily sensations and use that to monitor your own genki's flow for a time. In particular, pick out your breath and heart rhythm. Again how this manifests itself in your mind or projected in the world will differ - for some it will be feel a physical rhythm, others a visual flash or a sound, a combination, and others an emotion much of its own. Crucially as it is your own genki it should feel normal to you, neutral in tone. You can feel its presence and its intent but it is otherwise clear, like how water has a weight and resistance but is otherwise without colour.

When you are comfortable in that sensation it is time to open your ears to other beats. Listen not within now, but without, shifting your attention towards where you know your test subject is - somewhat of a cheat to start with, yes, but there's no reason to make the work unduly difficult _just_ yet. The temptation will be to reach with your own genki like our auras do when wanting to find or longing for someone, and whilst that will bring your own genki closer to theirs and so help telephone back their ki-signature, it is not a habit to fall into if you want to progress to sensing disturbances in the field. Wait, be patient, do not strain to reach.

As your attention is turned your skin may prickle and tickle, a tinnitus may be induced, a sensation of pressure on the mind itself may manifest. Your own thoughts of the person will be triggered in recognition as expected, the same thoughts and images that surface when you hear their voice from a distance. Seemingly unrelated memories or imagery, or smells and tastes and sounds may trigger within your own headspace, though on a separate layer of perception from that ongoing pop-song you've been unable to shake for the past three weeks. If you break from this direction of attention the sensation should leave (and the earworm sadly continue).

That cacophony of sensation is a ki-signature.

How will you know if the ki you are sensing is that of your target's? This does not sound like much of an answer but the sensation will literally _feel correct_. This is why we were working on our autoceptive discernment in the previous section. The good and bad feelings we have in our gut can be accurate if we train them to be, and it is that gut feeling that will tell you whether you're picking up the person you expect. If in your over-enthusiasm to learn how to fly you've skipped autoceptive training, then your gut feeling will be all over the place and therefore useless. Sorry! Back you go.

After you're sure you're able to find someone within auratic contact, it will be time to train your sense of direction.

Turn your attention away now, perhaps in the opposite direction to your target. Early in your study the sensation of a ki-signature should fade across the entirety of your perception like an enveloping pulse, with no directional information. This means you can use the changing sensation to play a game of hot and cold, brute-force finding where someone is. With increased experience that sensation will immediately resolve itself into a gradient across you then slowly focus down until you are able to resolve their shape in your mind's eye. This is the sensory equivalent of slowly moving from mono to stereo, then to surround sound. Again, keep practicing and the sensation will begin to overlap on the world around you too, growing in acuity until you can resolve the filaments of flow in others to the same level as your own genki.

 _[Figure 3]_

 _[_ _groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/170956049752/2point2#three_ _]_

Whilst you can also (necessarily) read your own intents, you will need a high degree of closeness - effectively a permission from the other person - to read someone else's, and even then it will never be a perfect read. Pure, long distance and exact telepathy is reserved for those with magic. Never fear though, the gist of meaning can easily be sent between the auras of nearby friends through strong emotions or a coded message of imagery.

 **Consequences of over exertion**

Be cautious in your practice, however. Zealousness in the early days can lead to a tiring of the brain and your ki. This will not manifest as mere exhaustion. You'll first experience warning flashes of intensity lasting a split-second. These zaps can feel like breakthroughs in your practice and may encourage you to push further but that is a misinterpretation - your progress should be slow in ramping. Instead this is a faltering of your brain and genki's ability to modulate the new sensations relative to the sensations you're used to processing. Ignore these warning signs and your mediocre ability to sense ki will slam in the other direction, creating an overstimulation, a very sudden vivid hallucinogenic-like experience. Ki will become indistinguishable from other exteroceptive sensation; your brain's interpretation moving to that furthest layer of perception. In other words you will see and hear, taste, smell, and feel the ki around you with the same immediacy and clarity as the solid world.

Does this sound like the perfect way to hack your way to mastery to you? It shouldn't, not when it "blinds" all your senses in its strength. And unlike having a bright light shone in your eyes or a foghorn blaring, squeezing your eyes shut or tightly covering your ears will not make it stop. The effective seizure may last only a few very long seconds, or it may persist for minutes at a time. It will cause you to reflexively vomit, scream in imagined but very real-feeling pain from your eyes and ears, and feel like you're tumbling down a hill whilst being simultaneously exploded and crushed alive from all directions. Thankfully you'll pass out pretty quickly.

Don't ignore those first strange zaps.

The risk is only in the first few weeks until new connections are made in your brain to process ki information properly. Until then however, be careful.

 **Exercise 2.2.2: Exploring the Ki-Field**

Before attempting this exercise you should at least be able to sense a gradient of correctness across yourself when sensing a particular person's ki-signature - in other words your ki-sense should at least effectively be in stereo. If you're still working in mono, you're about to get lost. Quite literally.

Reading the ki-signature of a ki you're practically enveloped in is one thing. But being able to find that ki-signature again when there's a block, a city, a vast mountain range or even and entire planet between you is a different skill entirely. You need to be able to read the ki-field, that membrane all centres and therefore ki interacts with (section 1.9). Now, rather than being in the room over, you need to get a fair amount of distance between you and your target. This could mean you moving to a bench nearby or an empty café, though ideally somewhere others won't be in auratic contact with you at first like a park (if available). That, and so people won't be stopping every five minutes because you're inadvertently pulling a strange face in concentration(!).

To begin, look for genki in general, your own and the ambient genki around you. Picture the genki fading away, those wisps depleting like steam from dumplings or coffee, energy and particle uncoupling to return to that lake of tappable energy. As part of its uncoupling the intent within it unravels - thought and ki-signature alike - losing its voice and identity. Now imagine this separation affecting you, peeling yourself away from the surface of your own identity to become closer to the wider world around yourself, akin to those moments of sheer awe one can experience when in connection to the wilderness or the city rushing past you. Let it take you and fall into that rush, towards the ki-field, that expanse of lake, until you feel a sharp tug back. That tug is literally your life. It acts as a life-preserver of genki threaded around your centre preventing you from completely losing yourself to the oblivion below. Do not worry that the tether will break accidentally. Though it is possible to do, it would have to be an extremely deliberate act by a master of ki manipulation.

Getting close enough to the field to 'touch nose' to it (metaphorically speaking) isn't necessary to read the currents and ripples of ki-signatures - though being able to get that close without fear of permanent loss of self will help you when we move to amplification of genki and the theory behind techniques such as 'instant transmission'.

Once immersed, the quiet few ki-signatures you can possibly feel around you will multiply in volume. The world, the Universe even will be yours to grapple with. Most will be a sheet of static to you, some buzzes louder and more unfamiliar than others and at first you won't know if the intensity is due to their power or distance. To begin with let the ripples of ki-signature wash over you. Like hearing an orchestral piece for the first time and struggling to pick out the french horn or tuba, the noises will eventually resolve themselves into individual signatures. You can then begin to pick out separate threads of ki to compare what you feel with your memory of the target.

At this point your target will only be in some vague direction and have an intensity to you, and will feel much fainter than before to boot. The ki-signature will slip from your grasp often, but as you practice you will be able to hold onto it and study, even from a distance. Shifting attention to deliberately drop and find the signature again is a good exercise to increase your confidence.

 **Exercise 2.2.3: Homing Beacon**

When you are able to reliably find your target, start winding back the sense of immersion in the field. This is most easily achieved by paying attention to the physical world around you. When the signature slips from your grasp go back down to find it again. I assure you, whilst this process will be frustrating you will reliably improve with time. At some point you'll be able to hold that thread reliably (with minimal attention on the field) whilst engaging eyes open with the world around you, then eventually when standing and walking.

At this point you will be ready to find your way home. Using the vague sense of direction you've gained with the ki-signature aim yourself towards the source. With every stride the intensity of the ki-signature will increase (if imperceptably at first) until you bump into the source.

Technically you can perform this task with your eyes closed, though I wouldn't recommend navigating anything but a very flat and empty expanse without vision to guide you - remember genki is not by default hindered by physical objects so your ki sense is not naturally likely to prevent you from tripping (unless you have deliberately set your genki to search for obstacles, but that's a discussion for another time).

If you have a very willing participant, you can ask them to hide in the city or woods and see if you can hunt them down. Don't get too ahead of yourself - wherever you go to do this, make sure you're able to safely return home without using ki-sense, too!

 **Exercise 2.2.4: Multiple Targets**

This last exercise will stimulate the development of your depth perception, and is best started when your acuity is such you can pinpoint the direction of your target's ki - faint though it may be against the background - at the distance of a few kilometres.

Learn a few more ki targets; three or four total is a good number. Again the closer the person is to you emotionally the better, but in this case you need the individuals far apart - so friends, family across town or work colleagues would be ideal. Get some distance again and double-check you can find these individuals.

Then pick any direction and start moving. Public transport would be ideal as you won't have to concentrate on driving but I understand not everyone has access or the means to ride trains and buses all day. Walking will do, although changing your position relative to others is the goal and doing that quickly with motorised (or vapourised) transport will help your sense develop faster.

However you travel both the position and intensity of your targets' ki-signatures will change. Some will be growing then fading as you go past their home, others will remain the same intensity but change in position as you inadvertently circle them. As these signatures circle and wax and wane, your mind will begin to map where they are in space, and eventually - pop! - you will be able to 'look' in their direction and 'see' exactly where they are. Depth perception will appear first for 'important' ki-signatures like your targets and then signatures you care about, before settling across all, finally forming a 3D coherent image with a noisy, truly distant background you aren't yet able to resolve.

Of course, we all have our limitations and that is due in part to the faintness of the ki-signature. As mentioned in section 1.2, Videl learnt the sense of distance the jarring way - by knowing the ki-signatures of powerful people on the other side of the globe. She learnt what 12,000km felt like as though looking over a cliff face at it and it made her ill. In that regard I do not recommend learning ki-sense by choosing a local hotshot as your target, less they change city for a day and you're left quaking in your boots as the distance resolves itself! Still, you may at some point experience some vague vertigo as you sense us training or entire cities on the other side of the world. It will pass, but daily life may be extremely difficult for a few days. Sorry about that.

If you keep this practice up, dropping into the field or sensing aura will be simple enough and you'll always have a part of your mind on it, like a fishing line trawling behind you. This is a useful skill as any big disturbances in the field will draw your attention, and your aura will keep a weather eye out for people sneaking up on you, much like hearing an alarm. Your 'sixth sense' can and will unnerve anyone not in a similar situation to yourself however, so try not to vocalise your observations too often. People still like to knock on doors to announce themselves even if you both know they know you know they're outside. Maintaining the pretense of privacy is of great comfort even amongst ki-users.

I can't promise you will master ki-sense over the course of a few weeks. It will take years to perfect, but ideally your acuity when in auratic contact will develop over the course of the next few sections, and you will be able to access the ki-field by the time we begin amplifying genki. Wishing to master the exercises in this section before moving on is a noble goal for sure, however in this case I believe you are more than capable of moving on to the exercises in the next section if you are able to sense a vague directional component of ki whilst in auractic contact.

I'm excited at the prospect of the world at large learning ki sense! Not just to bring us closer together as a planet but for the immense power it adds to daily life. The first benefit I can bring to mind is for medicine. There's a reason some older medical techniques discuss flow of ki in the body - practitioners of these arts use a different paradigm than my own though they are not incorrect per se. Disruption in flow, pain, a concentration of buzzing genki around a problem area can all stick out like a literal sore thumb to the most skilled practitioners. Ki can also in part be used to heal, a form of externally-induced transformation. However healing is a combination of ki-use and magic I am not experienced in and so it will not be covered by myself in great depth.

One further, frivolous use of ki-sense I've always found handy is never, ever making the mistake of asking a heavier person if they are pregnant. To be clear, this not a conversation topic anyone should dare to broach first - but in those rare, unavoidable situations you find yourself needing to make a judgement call, being able to sense the child could save you the social faux pas.

To expand for clarity, every living creature with a centre has a ki-signature associated with it. That includes bacteria, plants (great forests of the same organism can have multiple apparent centres though they stem from one and the same, see the "multiform technique") up to multicellular organisms with their own coherent drive to survive like animals and humans. This means children before birth, whilst connected to the parent to survive, will have their own centre and therefore genki helping to direct growth as soon as they begin to develop. Although this ki-signature is extremely difficult to detect early on - the uterus lying in roughly the same position as the parent's centre - the differentiation becomes far easier when the heart cells start beating and the flow of genki begins proper in the tiny growing embryo, somewhere after the third week from conception. Hormonal pregnancy tests are still by far and large the more reliably test, then! Although in one case, the pregnancy was noted far earlier.

* * *

 _Age 798: Marron with her parents Krillin and Eighteen at the family home in Satan City._

Krillin: _It was a beautiful day. Sun was shining, waves lapping up the beach, Turtle humming, breeze rustling the palms–_

Marron: _Dad…_

Krillin: _–Hold on I'm getting there - fine sand warm against your tootsies, and Eighteen punching me in the face. All in all, a_ pretty _standard day for the island._

Marron: _He means they were sparring._

Eighteen: _I wouldn't punch him without his consent._

Krillin: _Oh really? I'm sure that happened once or twice…_

Eighteen: _Embarrassing me in public counts as consent._

Krillin: _Well if kissing you to show my love to the world is a crime then I'm guilty as–_

Marron: _Can we return to me, please?_

Krillin: _Keep your pants on! The only not-normal thing about the day was me having the upperhand for once. Eighteen couldn't land a hit. After we recovered from the shock (that I'll admit damaged my pride that we_ should _be so shocked) I worked out it was because I sense her. Which should be impossible -she had no ki-signature before._

Eighteen: _We guessed that b*****d's work was undoing itself. I even felt the need to eat._

Krillin: _I cooked for you to celebrate!_

Eighteen: _That first mouthful was the sweetest food I'd ever eaten._

Krillin: _And then we continued with our lives, watching Eighteen's ki grow back every day. But before the month was out my Master - who we were staying with at the time - suggested Eighteen may be growing in - let's just say…_ two particularly symmetric places _and there might be another explanation?_

Marron: _Trust_ him _to notice._

Eighteen: _By that point you had a heartbeat we could track. I learnt to sense ki that way. Yours was the only one I could sense for a long time_ because _I'd spent months listening to it._

Marron: _I didn't know you guys first thought the cybernetics were deactivating. Were you disappointed?_

Krillin: _Never._

Eighteen: _No. I got you and kept the strength to protect you from harm. What more could a mother want?_

* * *

You may infer in the case of part-Saiyans, with their larger base genki, the child would be noticed faster and quickly outshine an Earthling parent. Whilst a reasonable extrapolation from what we have covered so far, that is not quite true. A Saiyan child remains worryingly tiny in size for many months - developing instead in complexity and only exploding in size, genki and therefore nutritional need in the last two months. This is, I believe, to keep the parent unencumbered for fighting for as long as possible. For the last few weeks, whilst the child's hormones assist the parent in feeling the need to eat far more than usual, an Earthling digestive system (even slightly modified by the child's stem cells) struggles to cope and therefore this stage is a little more uncomfortable than a Saiyan parent would find it. The saying "eating for two" is particularly literal in this case!

Even given this, those carrying Saiyan pregnancies have a lot more energy and are far stronger than usual in those last few weeks in particular, especially if they are able to utilise the genki given to them by the child. Whilst the child is a little more boisterous during development the pregnancy and birth is easy (or easier, I should stress, before I am hunted down) and is an evolutionary advantage to encourage Saiyans to have more little soldiers, I'm sure. The excessive number of stem cells leaked back from the child to parent even speeds up recovery time and fixes current ills. I'm told there's not even stretch marks - though I'm sure we all would have been worth the hassle with or without. Videl assures me Pan definitely was.

Tangents aside my point is, ki-sense is not _just_ about finding people or homing in on the next dangerous being to land planetside. It's about connections, helping us empathise with others and for us to see our place in the world around us as one web, to understand the subtleties of life in all its forms.

So you see, if everyone could enhance their lives with this skill and see their fellow human as such, I'd be a very happy man.

Now you can sense your own ki and others' the next section will cover consciously drawing on genki to move it in and outside your own body at will, and the importance of both breath and words in doing so. Be warned - one of the exercises in particular could terrify you. Start summoning that courage - you may need it to see it through.

* * *

(( Uploader's note: And that's it for the catch up - plenty more to come though. We're now waiting on Professor Son to update before I can repost. They haven't caught me yet ;) . See you on the next upload, I'll get it up ASAP. Good luck training - Liberator ))


	17. 2-3 Breath and Driving Genki

_**2-3 Breath and Driving Genki**_

* * *

 **Warning! The following section contains exercises that could cause breathlessness, dizziness and severe embarrassment. The reader proceeds at their own risk.**

 _Prerequisite reading and exercises: 1.4 (on centring, posture and breath), 1.6 (on vibrations and oscillations), 2.1 (autoception), 2.2.1 (sensing your own and others' genki)_

* * *

What a difference a few months' effort makes. How is the world looking to you right now? I'd wager by the time you're ready to perform the exercises in this section your day-to-day experience would have a new vibrancy to it, a greater depth of empathy induced within you for those you meet. Fascinating isn't it, to witness waves of trepidation or excitement travelling through a crowd when we attend as one to events? How a single, charismatic person can literally brighten the day of all they meet, or cast a deep malaise over half the city should their mood be foul enough.

Though we can be moved by the emotions of others through ki, us ki-users have no need to constantly wear our hearts on our sleeves. With the subtlest and most delicate of manipulations we can mask our love or our fear, incite those feelings in others and barefaced lie to even the best of ki-readers. If you are to do so too you need to unhitch genki from its natural rhythm, adding a manipulatable filter between mind and ki.

As we have discussed genki follows any kind of flow through the body to seek where its intents and observations are needed. The one continuous flow we have control over is the breath, and it is through manipulation of the breath we can bend ki to our will then, slowly, peel back its necessity and move onto more advanced techniques.

To learn effectively in this section there are again real prerequisites. Before proceeding you must be able to:

\- Attend to the flow of your own genki along with your breath

\- Easily distinguish your own genki from that of those around you

\- Have a high level of autoceptive precision and discernment to ensure you are reading flow correctly and not inventing your success or failure to do so

If you have skipped any of the previous exercises that enhance the above abilities you will flounder. Whilst I understand your impatience I again implore you to review previous sections. You will reach your favoured techniques far faster by following my instruction, I promise you.

The link between breath and inner strength will not be a revolutionary concept to most. Think on how we use the breath to align, brace, and mentally prepare ourselves before running a race or lifting a heavy weight. Breath brings in oxygen which in turn allows us to utilise glucose acquired from food, fueling our muscles to cope with the strain. Along with the elevated muscular activity is an increased need for genki to monitor performance, and both types of energy work in tandem to bolster our strength.

Exhaling while performing the most difficult part of an exercise protects us from the harmful effects of e.g. high blood pressure, but this action also encourages the maintenance of genki flow. Conversely holding and straining the breath can cause physical damage and fatigue us with a lack of oxygen, and if repeated in quick succession the ability of genki to monitor and guide the behaviour of cells will also falter. When next lightly exercising note the difference between inhale, exhale and holding the breath, paying close attention to where genki is flowing to or struggling to reach. When genki flows well, so do you.

For those that have practised martial arts (or even attended a performance), you will know of the importance of breath there too - particularly how the use of voice enables the practitioner to perform extraordinary feats of endurance or pain suppression. These often guttural yells are known as kiai. You can try kiai yourself - notice the change in tension and readiness in the body when first breathing out quickly, then adding voice. The voice provides resistance, tightening the core, and acts as a beat on which to coordinate your actions. When you've found the perfect sound for your action (as bizarre as it may sound), kiai can encourage more genki to be released from the centre and even raise your yuuki. The simple and raw power of both breath and voice is not to be underestimated.

We will be using kiai fully at a later stage, but for now hold off. I do not wish you to shout yourself hoarse when you cannot yet manipulate your ki in a calm fashion! Still, please come to terms with the idea of shouting. Depending on the techniques you favour you may end up making an embarrassing amount of noise in future.

 **2.3.1 Steadying the breath**

All of these exercises will require you to comfortably perform a steady breath. This gives rise to an equally steady natural flow of genki which we can then begin to untangle. Let's recap what should be second nature now from section 1.4.

Stand tall in front of a mirror, or if standing isn't possible, find a comfortable position that will allow you to breathe freely. Centre yourself - in particular keep your head high and shoulders upright.

Take that first deep breath in. Was it abdominal or clavicalar in nature? If your shoulders rose first it was the latter - tsk tsk! Remember we want the movement of the breath to first reach right down into the abdomen to help whip our centre into motion. By this point those square breaths we used in 1.4 (inhale, hold, exhale, hold) to begin to sense the flow of genki from the centre should be more of a hinderance. If you breathe in a slow but comfortable rhythm the sensation of your own genki flow should be apparent without the need to add pauses in such an excessive fashion.

Breath steady, keeping the flow of air as consistent as possible. You can check this by placing a finger in front of your mouth as if you were shushing someone, with your lips lightly pursed if necessary. Exhale slowly but not unreasonably so - keep the breath gentle on the finger yes, but do not breathe so slowly as to pass out! Remember not to slam-shut your throat between inhale and exhale, either. If at any point you're holding your breath this should be purely the diaphragm's doing and not through blocking the back of the throat with your tongue. That builds unnecessary pressure and causes a spluttering in breath when restarting. A rattle from a lack of air can occur on the turn from exhale to inhale. You are trying to for the steadiest breath not the longest, so do not try and force the end of the exhale.

 _[ Figure 1 ]_

 _[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/172218859657/2point3#one ]_

When you think you have the breath steady attend to your genki. On the exhale it should naturally be lightly pooling anywhere from just above the heart to the head, but most commonly behind the jugular notch at the base of the throat. To me the pooling feels much like an eddy in a stream - those little whirlpools in rivers catching debris formed when the water rushes past a sharp edge. Much like the water, genki swirls a little in this knot before wandering off. On the inhale the eddy between the clavicles will empty and instead pool at the bottom of your breath, within the pelvis or even at the top of the thighs. Note the natural position of your own pools so you can attend to them when required.

 **2.3.2 Unsteadying the Breath**

It may seem counterproductive to undo all our hard work, but unsteadying breath in a controlled manner will allow you to practice reigning in the genki as a repeatable exercise. Whilst we will not be performing full kiai, I do want you to involve the voice a little. Engaging the vocal cords provides both a light restriction to the air flow and therefore a change in ki, and an auditory indication of how steady your breath is. Further, the sound will vibrate your centre, encouraging genki flow much like tapping a salt shaker.

 _[ Figure 2 ]_

 _[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/172218859657/2point3#two ]_

First, try a long vowel sound - 'ah' - again going for that unwavering breath light on your finger. You should notice the pool of genki high in your chest deepens as it becomes trapped for longer. If you're picturing that genki as an eddy, the whirlpool will feel larger, deeper, faster or tighter. This will happen naturally, much like the pooling when tensing the body during exercise. Flick between voicing the breath and not and you'll feel the density of genki subtly wax and wane.

Adding consonants will very much highlight this difference. A nasal sound like "ng" will force air through your nose, a further restriction than just tighter vocal chords, and the step-change in pressure will wind that eddy further. It would be easy at this point to keep increasing the air flow (i.e. make a louder sound) to heighten the difference and if that helps you go ahead! But be wary of how and what you're yelling, and try not to pass out. Get back to those light breaths when you can.

The biggest effect comes with plosives. Whilst the change in the eddy from unvoiced to vowel to nasal consonants flows well, a plosive sound, like "ba", "ka," "pa", "da" and "ta" (and indeed North's City's infamous glottal stop, the break of sound instead of the t when they say 'water') all involve arresting airflow completely for a moment, followed by an explosion of air quite readily sensed on the finger. In that moment the eddy of genki builds then sharply relaxes, tightening then unravelling itself abruptly.

By this point observations of your own genki flow on the exhale should come easily. Take stock here and look at how far you've come; a few sections ago I'm guessing you couldn't centre yourself, now you're using your natural breath to move genki around your body and are now reading that very movement!. We finally need to take the reins without the breath for assistance, keeping that flow consistent no matter what sound we're making.

 **2.3.3 Unhitching Genki**

Untangling genki flow from the breath (and any further manipulation of ki for that matter) requires two chained ideas - _expectation_ and _imagination_. First you must _expect_ your ki to continue to flow in a steady fashion if you modify your breathing pattern, then you must _imagine_ it doing so as you change your breath. This is far stronger a concept that merely 'wanting' or 'wishing' something to happen. You must suspend disbelief; convince yourself and as consequence your genki, beyond all doubt that the behaviour you are willing your ki to follow isn't a fleet of fancy but perfectly normal. By imagining your genki behaving in a particular way you are giving it a template for your abstract expectation to follow.

At heart this is not an unfamiliar concept. Wanting to turn the page of a book involves an expectation that you can do so, and some fleeting forethought in your mind's eye to know exactly what you wish to do with your hand. The only difference between pinching your fingers and shifting your genki is how the latter will be akin to willing muscles to twitch in fingers you didn't know you had. This _is_ difficult, but the process will eventually become second nature when using and developing ki techniques.

For now we're focussing on this one simple exercise. Beginning with the simpler vowels then the nasals, first expect your genki's flow to remain stable through the voiced disruption in breath. Then use your memory of its stability from the first exercise to imagine and will it so.

I agree, this is far easier said than done. There'll be false starts where the strength of your expectation falters - have some confidence in yourself! The first few times this unhitching works for you you may experience flutter of excitement and nervousness, your genki and mind panicking at the achievement - much like letting go of the pool noodle and realising you don't immediately drown. This switch in emotional state will cause your effort to slip a little and you may feel as though you are regressing. Don't worry, keep at it and the double-take will fade. Eventually you'll be able to move onto the abrupt plosives and do the same, that flow maintained and pooling perfectly.

For the very final test here, stop the airflow by holding your breath for a few seconds and still keep drawing that genki upwards as if you were exhaling. At first the genki flow will peeter out as your strength of will fades until you resume the exhale. When you can bridge that gap of a few seconds you know you are doing well.

This is indeed a difficult exercise and not something I can provide any smaller steps to help you puzzle out. One of the reasons I believe children are so adept so early with ki-use is not just due to their sponge-like minds but both the strength of their imagination and ability to suspend disbelief. Some of the most advanced, wild and downright bizarre techniques I have seen were brought into existence by children purely _because_ they assumed anything was possible. They played on their imagination to force their expectation until they succeeded, when an adult in a similar position would know not to even try something so ludicrous.

Speaking of the foibles of children: whilst their ability to learn ki-use is unparalleled, so is their impatience.

Pan took to ki-use like the proverbial duck to water. Like all with Saiyan heritage she's a natural mimic (quite literally 'monkey-see, monkey do'). Flight was easy enough, strength came as she willed it, reading the ki of others' as simple as reading the expression on their face. Young Bra too could use ki when she wished, although she was a little more boisterous in her application, often 'accidentally' letting her strength spill over in 'disagreements'.

This may lead you to believe that there was never any trouble in training the girls. And that's where you'd be wrong. Any child with a talent - an early aptitude for a skill of any kind - will fold that talent into their identity. Often then, any perceived failure in that domain scares them. Not winning fights, not hitting milestones as fast as their family did, not meeting Piccoyo's exacting standards for ki-amplification all turned them off learning to use ki in a structured manner. Running through exercises similar to the ones you've been undertaking so willingly would have been torture for any child even without the additional self-pressure.

This is a problem, as early ki-users have many lazy habits that need to be ironed out. But drills sucked all fun from using ki abilities, much like shuttle runs for exercise pale in comparison to exploring the woods all day. As young girls they dragged their heels and threw tantrums when asked to repeat themselves - Pan groaning and insisting instead on a grand adventure to push her limits the 'proper' way, and Bra stamping her foot, claiming she knew it all already so why bother.

And so, after months of struggle, we hit upon a plan - to turn training into a series of games. Some of those games are still in use by Pan with her students today (to great effect), many of which I will recommend to you as we progress through the textbook.

This first one I will describe is one of the more terrifying I believe - for adults, at least. Children on the other hand very much enjoy this exercise and will even perform it spontaneously.

In the context of breath control I am, of course, talking about singing.

 **2.3.4 Karaoke**

Now, repeatedly screaming for kiai isn't that fun and neither is making nonsense noises in front of a mirror for twenty mind-numbing minutes a day. But singing whilst controlling your ki can be. Some light karaoke with friends, sing-alongs with children or even bursting into song as you go about your day can help you squeeze in a little ki-manipulation practice.

My advice is to pick a song you like, preferably something a little wordy, or a song with long notes to hold. You want a song that is going to challenge your breath. By that I don't mean the notes themselves must be challenging - sing a song at a comfortable dirge if you must. I'm a terrible singer, more off-key than on, but the exercise still works well for me (just not for anyone else within earshot). Rather than only a steady breath and genki to concentrate on like in previous exercises, in song there are unnatural stops and starts in breath. You must monitor your pacing to ensure you have enough air for an entire line of lyrics, there are tone and crescendos to concern yourself with and all whilst keeping that genki flow consistent on the exhale. I am not being flippant when I suggest public singing in the form of karaoke, either. If you are able to hold your nerve and genki steady when doing something as terrifying as being on stage and at volume to boot, an opponent in battle will find the task of knocking your confidence very arduous indeed.

Be brave! Manipulating ki whilst distracting yourself with singing is an ultimate test of uncoupling breath and genki.

The one purely directional note I will pass on is, when specifically using this exercise to practice ki-manipulation, please keep the voice as a chest voice even when aiming high. Do not switch to the breathy head voice even if it means you make a terrible, flat racket. Your ki resides primarily in your abdomen and chest remember, so focussing on high notes from the head will not help stir up your genki.

Stuck for a song, you say? No matter, there is no escaping this exercise. I present to you an extremely cheeky song written by my brother about Vegeta to entertain Pan and Bra, when they were aged seven and six respectively, I believe. Children are sponges and Goten knew that - I don't know _what_ he was expecting to happen when Bra went home that afternoon but he _did_ receive the beating of his life not long after (or at any rate, the worst I've ever seen from 'friendly'-fire).

 _[ Figure 3 ]_

 _[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/172218859657/2point3#three ]_

Despite being an incorrigible imp he is a good brother, and backed up my fervent denials that I had _any_ hand whatsoever in censoring or jigging around some lines so they scanned better (since I was having to hear my daughter sing from the bottom of her lungs I might as well not have to wince at the lyrics). He took all the heat and for that I am publicly announcing my gratitude by including the entire epic below.

The verses are spoken rather than sang, and the chorus deliberately mid-range. In that sense it is simple, but the lyrics are fast and twisting in places, and won't make much sense outside our family and friends. Still, now you have no excuse to skip this exercise.

 **2.3.5 Driving the Ki**

Uncoupling genki in a limited context is one thing. To move it consciously to other areas in the body it must be driven and we will again utilise the breath to provide the kick needed to do so.

Remember in section 1.6 we were outlining the concept of vibrations and standing waves on a guitar string? A vibration is an oscillation, a repeated back and forth motion that can be described with equations. For this section picture a mathematically identical oscillation - playing on a swingset. As you swing backwards and forwards you can either maintain a comfortable height, or kick at exactly the right time and drive the swing higher and higher.

We're now going to do the same with your breath, finding the exact rhythm needed to flood the pools of genki on both the inhale and exhale, to tug on the flow from the centre and to move those pools away from their natural position within you.

Breathe in deeply - no rush to the action - but imagine the breath going into the centre and then past it, like the breath itself is drawing the genki low into the pelvis. Then on the exhale, imagine the opposite, the breath dragging the genki towards the upper torso. Keep performing this swing, each time expecting and imagining the genki to move further into your legs, then upwards into the head and shoulders. It should feel like an an ever-growing oscillation, an elastic pull, yo-yoing around the centre. Remember to not rush the breath and leave yourself dizzy! The enhanced flow will be straggly and unsure at first. It will appear to billow and dance ahead of the pool as only some your genki will understand what you're trying to achieve, but keep up the attempt and the entire pool will follow with your ever-increasing experience.

This will be your first movement of genki enhanced with imagination and so it may take you some time to learn depending on your ability to suspend disbelief. Thankfully when you feel comfortable doing so these last exercises will fall like dominoes (relatively so, anyway).

 **2.3.6 Flipping Direction**

So far you have untangled genki from the breath and used rhythm to push genki beyond its usual resting position. This is all fantastic work, but a steady flow of genki upwards can be stalled by the inhale, naturally causing it to reverse direction. So far we have focussed on enhancing the natural direction for genki to flow but now you need to break that assumption. Now we need the inhale to cause ki to pool high in the chest, too.

To keep genki flowing in one direction as you perform a full breath requires a moment-to-moment changing expectation. In this case, a strong belief that it is natural for genki to pool upwards on the exhale as usual, and a switch to an equally strong belief that it is _just_ as natural for genki to pool upwards on the inhale.

One approach to this switching visualisation is to imagine piloting with an airplane's yoke (the joystick), or what might be more familiar to younger readers - a computer games controller. Against expectation pulling _back_ (down) on a plane's yoke _raises_ the nose and the plane climbs, pitching _forward_ (up) _lowers_ the nose. In games (yes, yes, pick your jaw off the floor - I may look like I'm from the thirties but I have played them) the toggle to look around the environment can either work in the same way as a yoke, or as one would expect it to - pushing the toggle up makes the camera look up. Changing this setting usually involves arguing over something called the 'y-inversion' in some deeply buried menu screen. I hear debates over which setting is better can end friendships and cause family estrangements.

Switching that y-inversion setting on and off in your head every half a breath will be tiring and often uncomfortable at first, though as your strength of visualisation increases it will become second nature. Be careful you don't switch to a clavicular breath - chest rising on the exhale - to help perform the "inversion". The change will help you perform the exercise as genki will be pulled up with your breastbone but you will fall behind on the learning objective. Watch those shoulders!

 **2.3.7 Pooling Low**

We have heavily focussed on the top pool of genki as many of the flashiest ki techniques begin with a lift. The more workhorse types draw ki from all over including the aura and heavily utilise the broader lower pool. It is that I want you to pay attention to now. Using the inversion technique discussed above, now keep your inhale natural and flip the genki movement on the _exhale_.

Your abdomen will be working as a bellow in its movement so this is particularly tricky on the exhale, as your genki will very much want to follow your diaphragm's direction of travel. Likewise with the shoulders in the previous exercise, take care not to subconsciously roll your abdominals down on the exhale like a tube of toothpaste in an attempt to squeeze the genki lower. Keep willing it below the pelvis and beyond. For some the pool may even escape the body or split and follow the thighs.

At this stage you should be able to enhance genki's natural flow along with the breath, directly reverse this, and pool the ki consistently high and low with a steady flow. And of course, all whilst singing in from of a mirror. You got all that? There is one final element to put into place.

 **2.3.8 Splitting the Pool**

Before I let you go, this very final exercise is crucial for the next section. Without it you will hit a figurative wall on the symmetric exercises, and later you will inadvertently smash yourself into a _literal_ wall as you'll struggle to provide the brace required for some techniques. This is technically the hardest exercise to perform in the sense your imagination is again being requisitioned, but if you have mastered the previous exercises there will only be one new element to learn. You need to define your own pools of genki or, in other words, split the natural pool of genki into two.

First, imagine not one pool but two overlapped completely - two candles so close their flames combine, or two jets of water brought together. Two sources with one output. Expect the pools to behave that way and imagine them so to reinforce this idea of two streams. You then want to separate them back out, like the two pools you 'know' them to be.

You may have experienced this splitting already, particularly if the default natural position for your lower pool of genki is below the pelvis, as the genki will attempt to stay in the body and so will increase the density in your thighs instead. If that's been happening for you - great! This splitting should be a lot easier to visualise. The rest of us will have to be inventive.

 _[ Figure 4 ]_

 _[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/172218859657/2point3#four ]_

Depending on what's easier for you based on your experience with this section there are two main approaches to this exercise. The first is to breathe naturally, letting that knot of genki move freely up and down with each inhale and exhale. On each breath however, attempt to split the two flows left and right, causing these mini pools to zig-zag up and down your torso until they are comfortably oscillating between your thighs and shoulders. Then you can work on steadying the flow again to keep the pools fixed in place. If that's not appealing, keep the flow constant and try to crowbar the pools straight apart, the top or bottom pool will suffice. You may want to use the breath's rhythm or heartbeat to do this inch by inch, it's up to you.

Any way you approach this, you must eventually be able to perform this split within one exhale or less. If you can whittle the time required down to three exhales that's more than adequate for the time being. To move on to any of the techniques in Chapter three and beyond that you will _need_ to be able to move pools around the body near instantaneously, lest your ki be far too sluggish to do anything meaningful for you, or you be too reliant on the coupling of genki and breath for techniques it is detrimental for.

Remember: the ultimate goal is to perform this splitting consistently and steadily when standing, walking, running, talking and yes, when singing. Keep practising and it will come.

This has been a lot of nuanced work, I understand, so thank you for your patience. Some of you will have found vast swathes of this section almost immediately performable and may have wondered why I went to such a huge effort to explain the work. For others a throwaway line would have been excruciatingly painful and taken you days or even weeks to master. Everyone is different, so do not think my relative word count is an indication of the amount of effort you "should" have spent mastering those exercises - there is no right or wrong pace to be approaching the practicals, so do not be downhearted if the seemingly "simple" concepts were tricky!

In the next section we will discuss the concept of a _focus_ \- harnessing the pools of genki and the lax aura around it. There will again be some exercises for you to perform and I'll touch on some of the more advanced focuses to whet your appetite.

* * *

 **Full lyrics:**

 _Gather round kith, kin (and clowns) to listen to my story  
_ _(Of a) man you know, a prince - although his line a faded glory.  
_ _Sold a slave to try and save his race from demolition  
_ _(He) flew to Earth for secrets worth the compromise of mission._

 _(Immor)tality his goal you see, our planet had the means to  
_ _Grant requests but for the best Earth's fighters won't amene to.  
_ _(Though) small in stature cameras captured his stupendous glee,  
_ " _I'll have a ball, killing you all!" - our forces disagreed._

 _(With a) big bald man, a half-baked plan and confidence astounding,  
_ _Geets - that jerk - he set to work dealing out a major pounding.  
_ _(The) man unleashed the King of Beasts - Oozaru loomed above them,  
_ _(But) Geets forgot that Goku's tot could do the same and squashed him._

 _Uncle Vegeta, bruised and battered flat  
_ _Got let go by Dad and co  
_ _And Earth said that was that.  
_ _Uncle Vegeta, his win streak knocked for six,  
_ _Swore vengeance on our hero Son  
_ _And with that he did split._

 _(Earth's) forces dazed and broken raised a problem for our defence.  
_ _(A) trip was planned to mystic lands - the undertaking immense.  
_ _(The) rumours true we found our boon a magic to revive them,  
_ _(But) in pursuit was Freeza too - Vegeta close behind him.  
_

 _(The) local's weak and quick to beat Lord Freeza thought them suckers.  
_ _(Bro) had the gall to steal a ball that clever monkey brother!  
_ _(With) Geets upon them our team froze and held their breath in anguish,  
_ _(Though) needn't freaked - poor, wretched Geets, he didn't know the language!_

 _Uncle Vegeta, the Saiyan now irate,  
_ _wish not granted strength he wanted  
_ _To indulge his hate.  
_ _Uncle Vegeta, his work gouged out that frown,  
_ _(His) boss a tyrant, even I'dn't  
_ _want to face him down._

 _(Then) came in view the motley crew of Krillin, bro and Geets.  
_ _(To) take boss down and steal his crown would turn out no mean feat.  
_ _(Un)lucky heroes - Freeza he rose up intentions cruel -  
_ _(A) last defense to stave against the despot's endless rule.  
_

 _(The) band afeard but Dad appeared to help them save the day,  
_ _(They) had five min to flee, to win, to make Lord Freeza pay.  
_ _Dad got p***ed - he bore witness to Krillin's grim destruction -  
_ _(His) anger seared, it raged, it cleared his path to gold eruption._

 _Uncle Vegeta, was quickly pushing daisies  
_ _(Dad) tried to save him, vision fading  
_ _was he going crazy?  
_ _Uncle Vegeta, convinced of his own legend  
_ _(But) failed to reach that foretold peak  
_ " _Earth's" Son was truly destined._

 _(Not) quite defeated Freeza's retreat 'came a fast invasion,  
_ _(But) Trunks appeared and quelled all fears by turning Super Saiyan.  
_ _Geets glared on his boss now gone diced into red confetti.  
_ _(He) needn't fret Geets weren't beat yet - just time got mighty messy!  
_ _  
(Three) years rolled past and so at last the gang were fin'ly ready  
_ _(To) take on foes from Trunks' woes two androids would be plenty.  
_ _(In)stead found five, bad twins alive their strength not comprehended,  
_ " _Tell me dears, do you feel fear?" - our Prince at last ascended._

 _Uncle Vegeta cockier than ever,  
_ _(In)sulted one and she was done -  
_ _She went and upped the pressure.  
_ _Uncle Vegeta, learned to value women -  
_ _Geets got bashed, his arm real smashed  
_ _By Eighteen's feminism._

 _Cell was braced to take its place as Earth's new terror reigning.  
_ _(With) Dad its target, Geets he started up his loud complaining.  
_ " _Challenge me!" he shouted freely knowing that allowed for  
_ _(It to) power up and tower over our team drawing uproar!_

 _(Lost) to his son (the future one) on morals and intentions  
_ _(As) Uncle knew the Games were truly of his own invention.  
_ _(He) learnt his lesson flew to help them counteract his sins,  
_ _(With) Cell distracted Geets smiled back as Gohan sealed the win._

 _Uncle Vegeta, his brave facade had crumbled.  
_ _Overpowered, ego soured  
_ _Went on kinda humbled.  
_ _Uncle Vegeta, life now a sitcom -  
_ _(Our) Prince, a cat, the technocrat  
_ _And their b*****d son._

 _(I) came along the younger son, but with Pa then rather absent,  
_ _(Ve)geta pained he caved and deigned to train what Mama hadn't.  
_ _(A) Saiyan's Pride, our chins held high, old ways cemented surely,  
_ _(Though) Pa returned and Geets 'bout turned - got baited to a tourney!_

 _(Dad's) tales of travels, spars and battles set Vegeta seething,  
_ _(His) jealousy was plain to see, he barely sneered a greeting.  
_ _(A) wizard quietly sought out piety, strength would be a bonus,  
_ _(So) Geets' psychosis 'course got stoked with bogus hocus pocus._

 _Uncle Vegeta, was gifted his desire  
_ _(Re)straint now lost but at what cost?  
_ _In evil he was mired.  
_ _Uncle Vegeta, slipped back to his old ways -  
_ _(His) midlife crisis (that'd be my guess)  
_ _Leaving us dismayed._

 _(Dur)ing their fight it came to light worse danger was a-lurking -  
_ _(A) force called [XXX] snapped 'Geta to, that demon needed hurting.  
_ _(We) tried to help but only whelps Geets played the nicest guy,  
_ _(Di'n't) mess about he knocked us out and blew himself sky high!  
_

 _Trunks and I, then met a guy named Gotenks - he's so crazy!  
_ _(We) trained and played all night and day, that 'week' was pretty hazy.  
_ _(Hit) three did he, surpassed old Geets before his dust had settled -  
_ _Safe to say in Hell that day our Prince was truly nettled!_

 _Uncle Vegeta, he couldn't let it lie,  
_ _(Climbed) out the grave, the Earth to save  
_ _and make [XXX] wave goodbye.  
_ _Uncle Vegeta, failed pleading with the nation.  
_ _Though absurd the voice all heard?  
_ _Our hero Mister Satan!_

 _Geets? …Oh he chilled out - you see, the battle did subdue him.  
_ _(He's) settled down in West Downtown, great father to his children.  
_ _(He) trains all day for future frays and barely stops to rest,  
_ _(But) after all his sweat and toil… My dad's still the best!_

 _Uncle Vegeta, our Saiyan Prince redeemed.  
_ _(With) Bulma's hand and CC's brand  
_ _Their hellspawn reign supreme.  
_ _Uncle Vegeta, if he should hear this sung?  
_ _(I'm) dead, long gone, deceased - hold on–!  
_ _I better ****ing run!_


	18. 2-4 Foci

_**2.4 Foci**_

* * *

 **Warning! The following section contains exercises that, if deviated from, could cause broken teeth and blindness. The reader proceeds at their own risk.**

Prerequisite reading and exercises: 1.4 (on centring, posture and breath), 2.1 (autoception), 2.3 (Splitting pools of ki)

* * *

As a general rule, ki techniques need at least one focus. Focuses are anchors; they both root ki in absolute or relative space, and act as a jumping-off point - from where a ki-user can work complicated techniques without the need to draw genki moment to moment. From the simple point of a ki-ball's centre or the abstract entirety of a weapon, to two points in space separated by unfathomable distances - learning the fundamentals of creating a focus forms the basis of this next section.

As I'm sure you're already finding, staying on top of all the elements of ki manipulation can be somewhat daunting. Upsetting the natural flow of genki may have been a difficult enough, so how can anyone fly or even _glow_ ki in their hand when continually drawing from the centre? Even my experienced brain would fry. But there is a way to bypass the immense effort required, and that is by using a focus.

The focus of a ki technique is, in some respects, mimicking your centre. It's a kind of stop-gap for ki during your technique replication. That natural overdensity in the upper chest, the pool, created at first by a restriction of breath that we split and moved? The centre point of those two pools were foci for our ki.

More than just an anchor, a focus then is an object or point of attention close to or within the intended technique that can gather ki in reserve. Having ki closer to the point of use makes life far easier for a ki-user.

Natural (or, more accurately, subconscious) foci do occur: when we attend those we love and our own genki reaches out; when we have an injury and genki rushes to assess the damage and to marshal the body's response; or even when holding tools in our hand and our mind incorporates the object into our own self-image. A focus does not have to be part of you, another person or an object either. In many cases the focus will be a point outside your body defined in relation to a part of you - between your hands is the most common and indeed will be the first we shall attempt.

If you've ever witnessed a demonstration of ki, I wager you've seen a spark of ki hovering above an upturned hand. It's the most common technique used to impress as it requires minimal effort (you are not going to work up a sweat), can be performed in close quarters (unlike some of the more spectacular and explosive manipulations), and is far easier for beginners than hovering a half a metre in the air (though it elicits the same excited disbelief from a crowd). In fact, it was one of these tiny points of light I used to shatter the worldview of the journal editors. Convincing a board of hard-lined skeptics to give my research a fair hearing with unsolicited papers alone was always going to be a trial. A simple demonstration (and in my case a meeting arranged under false pretences - thank you, Professor Junkyou!) can go a long way.

The purpose of this section's exercises are not to create a spark in the hands, not just yet. Whilst the move does rank on the easy end of the spectrum, there are a number of elements to nail down before one can perform a tiny _glow_. Shiny things may blow away those who have no ki-sense or training and win you that number at the bar, but your peers and teachers will be impressed more by your ability to split and redirect ki's flow with nuance within and without the body. Aim high, and you may even coax a ghost of a smile from Piccolo himself.

If your only goal in reading this textbook is to make friends at parties or to see into the back of your cupboard then I permit you - and only you - to skim through the exercises over the next three sections. If you are planning on using ki for a number of tasks like flying (as I suspect many of you are chomping at the bit to do), the simultaneous components need to be mastered in isolation before combination, and one quick recreation of a party trick will not prepare you for those.

 **2.4.1 Hands**

As tradition dictates, we will begin by building to a focus between the hands. Sit crossed-legged, in seiza or seated with your hands resting palm up on your knees or thighs, whichever is easiest to keep a relaxed-but-upright back. If you are unable to use both or either hand, keep the symmetry in the genki flow for as long as possible and take when I say palm as the part of the arm you would use to press or hold an object, and fingers to be the furthest point from the body.

Split your genki to your shoulders as in the previous section. You should experience a fullness, a sense of warmth, comfort, security and correctness attributable to these pools. The centre point of the whirlpool of ki is the focus. As the genki settles there the light pressure and warmth should build in tandem. Some genki will of course continue to thread its way along the flow of blood in the arms, performing its natural function to regulate allostasis, but most will stick to the focus.

Without breath in the arms to help push the focus to your hands the visualisation required - that expectation and imagination - is harder to conjure this time. If you're having trouble, imagine the genki caught around the focus as water held back by a dam or barrier, only a trickle passing through, the pressure building behind. Turn the valve or lift a sluice gate to let that water flow where it most "obviously" "wants" to. By expecting genki to flow in this manner it will eventually deign to do so. Your genki may get stuck on its way as it ventures too far from normal experience and that is a typical stumbling block. If you find yourself stuck with warm elbows, reposition the mental dam to this new spot and try again and again until your genki reaches your hands.

Eventually the warmth, tingle and pressure will fill your hands, in particular the palms and along the side of your thumbs. Whilst these sensations will verge on the corporeal, genki is not physically manifesting itself just yet, it is still passive. This pressure is not from an active intent like _push_ , but is the sense of life and presence that exists in and around your centre at all times. It is only a remarkable and unnerving sensation in the hands as it is so out of place here. When we move to intents in the next section, the difference between active and passive ki pressures will become obvious.

Moving ki to the fingertips does not necessarily require you to split the focus into five. Pumping the fingers by flexing your fists a few times will stretch the shape of the pool. As the fingertips hit your palms, the eddies in the current will be disrupted and encouraged to divert to the fingers. Once your have experienced this sensation, it will be far easier to imagine and therefore encourage your genki to do so without you needing to flex your fingers each time.

If you are finding these exercises too easy (a minority of you, I'm sure!) and wish to push yourself, try to formally split your ki and make each of your fingertips a separate focus. When performed correctly your palm will empty and the tiny pools of genki will happily settle in the distal phalanx (last finger bone) of each digit, under the nail.

 **2.4.2 Between the hands**

As part of your body, the hands are classed as an internal focus. Now for an external example - _between_ the hands.

Adjust your body so you are still sitting tall but this time palms facing, wrists relaxed and near-straight. Your fingers should be curled inwards, tips or pads facing their counterpart to form an arc but not touching, as though you are holding a ball. If this position is too difficult, one hand with fingers in the same position, mimicking holding the ball on one side, will work just as well.

Your new focus will be the centre of this ball, a point usually level with the base of the middle fingers. Move your genki to your hands (across the palms and fingers) to begin. That same sensation of life, of yourself, that current of ki flourishing within the hands? Project it, willing it to extend around the new focus, the flow from both hands converging like water from two faucets. Though the genki will wax and wane, tumbling over itself at first (more a roiling anxious mist in your ki perception than a serene ball), it will settle if you will it to calm. At first your genki will stubbornly cling to you and be confused as you encourage it to let go - this genki was not expecting to leave the body after all - but it will get used to the new status quo. If you wish to use your breath to aid the "expulsion" of ki, that is a great way to start! But again do not rely on this method, you need to ultimately untangle genki from the breath.

Congratulations! You've created a happy ball of genki. Your first external focus!

Why have I made you to go the extraordinary effort of forcing ki down your arms, into your hands and fingers to only expel it mere centimetres from your centre? Wouldn't concentrating genki around your stomach and jumping it across the gap to that focus make more sense? Well, there is a method in my madness. Although ki does like to follow a simple path, remember it is very much tied to flow, and so it prefers to mimic those those present in the body - much like electricity tries to follow the path of least resistance, or water flows downhill. For most people, of all their appendages the hands have the best dexterity, proprioception and (it follows) most nuanced ability to manipulate ki, far greater than an arbitrary spot on your stomach. And finally a practical reason - as you raise your hands this external focus is not always going to be near your centre but always between your hands, and so it makes sense for your ki to be drawn from the closest point.

Ki doesn't always behave like electricity - imagination trumps its stubbornness. Against received wisdom this exercise _will_ work if your fingertips are touching, albeit slightly harder to perform. This difficulty is not because your ki will 'follow the path of least resistance' and refuse to jump to the central focus as some people believe, but because the sensation of touch will create and reinforce natural focusses along the fingertips and thus discourage ki to leave the hand.

 **Notation**

Before we dive into other forms of focus and their uses, I want to introduce two notation systems to you. This will be a lot to take in at first but don't fret, I'm introducing them together so you grow accustomed to seeing the very basics in tandem, not for you to become an immediate expert! The first I will expand on in the next chapter, the second the next section.

First is choreology, the study and notation of dance… Given this and the previous section I promise I am not tricking you into joining the circus! Many of the techniques you'll be learning later will have signature stances and rehersable rhythms to the movements. Choreological notation, as opposed to my rambling, is the most precise way to record them.

As dance is typically accompanied by music the notation is helpfully written on the same kind of five-line stave. The lines correspond to parts of the dancer's body and surrounding space: the top of the head, shoulder height, waist height, knees height and the floor line. When reading you are looking at the back of the dancer, so actions on the left side are to be performed with your left. The stave shows a series of snapshots - frames - with movement lines indicating how to change from one position to another. The clef for this stave is a circle and straight line below, an abstract upright body.

 _[ Figure 1 ]_

 _[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/174026401107/2point4#one ]_

The feet and hands are the parts of the body most transcribed, and are written as |, _ and a dot when they are in front, level, or behind the core of the body respectively. When elbows and knees are bent, they are indicated with a shorter, perpendicular line crossing them (or as an x when behind). The arcs below the stave indicate the direction the toes point in, and the hooks on the hand line follow the direction the curl of the hand follows (relative to the dancer's core) to show where the wrists are pointing.

A diagonal line instead of a level line implies there is contact with the body (\ and / for left and right, adding a perpendicular line or circle if in front or behind). A _fainter_ right diagonal line (/) crossing through the symbol implies the body part is on the wrong side of the dancer's centre line (i.e. crossed-over), and a fainter left diagonal line (\\) is used if the extremity is on the wrong side of the waist line (so hands and elbows aren't confused with feet and knees).

There are plenty more rules of notation in choreology, but that is enough to start reading the staves below.

 _[ Figure 2 ]_

 _[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/174026401107/2point4#two ]_

A note for those already familiar with this particular notation: the default is to assume ballet positions, that arms in front are slightly bent at the elbows, hands held with a characteristic delicate grace and level feet are fully turned out. Whilst you can adopt this, no such grace is required here. Arms out straight means arms out straight, and feet are marginally turned out for your stability and comfort.

The stave beneath this is for the fluxology, so named for the study and notation of ki's flow through time and space. Each of the five lines and gaps between the lines represent something different to the dance stave. From the top-down for the lines we have: a free line defaulting to the aura for neatness, the left hand, the right hand, the right foot and the left foot. Again this is as though we're looking at the person from behind, but this time they're leaning over - the clef for this stave shows this position. The gaps correspond to the head, the upper chest, the centre, and the pelvis. Below the stave can also mean the aura. Lines can be added above or below to refer to objects or other people.

 _[ Figure 3 ]_

 _[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/174026401107/2point4#three ]_

As with the dance stave time progresses left to right, but this time as a continuous flow rather than a series of frames. Circles represent foci, both dotted and solid lines the flow of ki. Various modifications to the focus indicate whether there should be a change in flow rate, charge, amplification, or a rejection of ki (see diagram). Dashed lines represent genki, solid amplified ki or a mixture. A dotted line means ki from others. Vertical lines drawn between ki or foci shows a connection between them, like simultaneous action or a focus positioned relative to the foci indicated e.g. between the hands. When a line passes through a shape, that means the corresponding intent has been applied to that branch of ki. A tight row of ki lines serially connected with vertical lines are all branches of the same flow of ki at the focus they surround, though different intents may be being applied to the branches. Line weights can indicate if the proportion of ki is intentionally different between the branches.

 _[ Figure 4 ]_

 _[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/174026401107/2point4#four ]_

Above are examples of relaxed positions and the simple flow of genki we have used for exercises 2.4.1 and 2.4.2. Note how, from context between the hand positions in the dance stave and whether or not the hand focuses are connected in the ki stave, it is possible to deduce the foci's position.

 **2.4.3 The feet**

Much the same way ki can be pooled in the hands, the foot can be a handy focus, too. The feet and legs are already a strong focus as mitigating the stress of walking is managed in-part through genki.

In this case I want you to treat the instep of your foot like the palm of your hand. Of course, your probably don't have the same flexibility in your feet as your hands and so cupping the feet in the same way will be tricky. If you can sit soles of the feet near-touching (like lotus) that would be perfect, though extrapolating from the average person's flexibility you may have to make-do with outstretched feet turned marginally inwards. Thankfully this old dog's still got it!

The same principles as before apply, but this time begin with the split focuses at the top of the thighs and expect genki to want to flow to your toes. Release the dam to nudge your ki along the intended path to your feet. Ki is more accustomed to pooling in the legs than the arms to brace when walking and so it will happily settle around your joints. It may then need some gentle persuasion in the form of visualisation to tighten up inside the foot. Remember to wiggle your toes to force genki right to the tips, too.

Now, imagine the external focus either directly between the the feet, or projected from both insteps to the centre of the ball they are trying to grip. If it would help at first to use a sports ball to find this point, please do so.

 _[ Figure 5 ]_

 _[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/174026401107/2point4#five ]_

Why concentrate ki here? One preemptive (and potentially dangerous) leap of logic Pan students often make is to assume this must be the first step towards flight. Indeed, pooling ki at your feet and _push_ ing yourself from the ground like a firework is a very effective form of propulsion. But fireworks have carefully designed fins to stabilise them and no method to reliably turn. Using a ki blast from the feet to fly _will_ cause you to careen off into the blue and leave you hurtling towards an untimely death.

Although, such a risky move may just be what you need…

* * *

 _My parents' home in Mount Paozu Sept 795, discussing unusual implementations of techniques with my father Son Goku, and Piccolo._

Goku: _Oh! And there was the time I did the kamehameha with my feet in the Tenkaichi Budokai! Have to admit, I'm still proud of that one._

Gohan: _In the 23rd, right? How did that thought even cross your mind?_

Goku: _Well, I couldn't fly back then you see, so Piccolo - being the super smart guy he is and all - had flown way up to get the height on me. I was getting_ pretty _desperate and jumping to trade blows wasn't cutting it. Then I remembered a time I'd seen the scene before. Do you remember, Piccolo? When I was a kid_

Piccolo: _To my eternal torment, yes. Father seared the image onto my retinas._

Goku: _[Chuckles] Way back when we fought King Piccolo, he'd grown to the size of a house to try and stop –_

Piccolo: _He wasn't the size of a house - at that moment, anyway._

Goku: _You sure? He felt like the size of a house._

Piccolo: _Because you were tiny, making the memory all the more humiliating for me… At some point King Piccolo had Goku right where he wanted him, half-dead with a broken arm and shattered knee. He couldn't stand, so my father wrote him off. A huge mistake. Never write Goku off._

Goku: _Aww, you flatter me._

Piccolo: _King Piccolo flew up high, preparing to finally put an end to Goku's meddling with a ki blast, when the kid shot up from the ground like a rocket with his working fist outstretched. He punched straight through my father's chest._

Goku: _You see, I couldn't jump anymore because my legs were useless, so I did a ki-blast with my good hand to push me off the ground, and then turned mid-air to slam him. It worked, and we won. Are you sure he wasn't a giant? I went clean through._

Piccolo: _Very sure, pipsqueak. See? What normal child would think to do that? Never write Goku off. Or any of you Sons for that matter._

Gohan: _'Desperate times', as they say - we're pretty accustomed to those… So, the tournament?_

Goku: _Ah yeah. Well, I remembered that fight, but_ this _time I had my feet and both arms. I needed my hands free to deck Piccolo, naturally,–_

Piccolo: _'Naturally'?_

Goku: _– so by saying 'kamehameha' as I fell I tricked him into thinking I was going for the blast with my hands when I_ actually _channeled it through my feet, threw myself at him, and smacked him in the face with_ both _fists. It wasn't enough to win that time but I got you good!_

Piccolo: _The callback was not lost on me. Of course, I did a little hands-free blasting of my own as payback…_

Being just as competent using a part of the body other than your hands (Dad his feet and Piccolo his antennae) can both release you from a bind and gift you the element of surprise, and with that the advantage.

* * *

 **4.2.4 Tongues and other focuses**

Speaking of, one oft neglected focus (and yet arguably the easiest to use) is the head - specifically the tongue. As we're not used to thinking of the head as anything other than a house for the brain and something to protect most don't train this focus out of lack of imagination. But like the feet, learning to use your tongue can be an effective counter and, given the ease of the focus, free up effort to allow very complicated intents.

Although the head is the easiest focus, I skipped over it until now as the idea of forcing you it sit cross-eyed with your mouth agape and tongue drying to a sad, shrivelled slip of jerky is - whilst amusing for me to watch - not hugely appealing for many students.

Since by now you will have brought ki to your hands and feet, this should be an easy task. If you need to do so, use one breath to bring the natural upper pool into the head. The tip of the tongue, which we are often cognizant of, will gladly harbour that genki (sorry, I know many people hate being made aware of their tongue and how it sits in the mouth!). As you do this you may instinctively feel the need to poke out your tongue, as though continuing the breath's flow from the mouth. Your eventual goal will be to close your mouth and have the ki concentration secretly grow behind your teeth to preserve the element of surprise.

Don't panic that your mouth will fill with ki and explode! Unless you assign an intent to the ki, it will only gather, not interact with your body in any way. Many students are scared to hold their tongues back thinking they will break their teeth. Although, if you do wish to use the tongue to release a generic form of _push_ intent, please remember to open your mouth when launching - I'm not going to pay for your dentist!

Using this focus isn't exactly a pretty sight - it elicits bizarre kiai from users and fits of giggles from onlookers. Some of the most complicated intents, such as Gotenks' Kamikaze Ghosts (a long story) use this focus, as well as their more simple Ki-Butterfly cousins. In the latter case their creators often breath directly into cupped hands out of politeness. Please push to surmount the anxiety of using this focus, as being able to unflinchingly use the tongue when your four main limbs are pinned is something not a lot of assailants will see coming.

With counters in mind, the eyes are another helpful focus and I've seen them used many times (Piccolo even used them in that same Tenkaichi Budokai final). However, I will not encourage you to use them at this point. You have not learnt to control intents yet and I do not wish you to do even the slightest hint of damage to your eyes. The eyeball itself can act as a very convenient spherical focus and the pupil a perfect exit to channel through. Even the lens can be used to focus and direct the ki. However, to do so means allowing your ki to interact with the lens and this opens the door to permanent injury. To that end I caution against using the eye for a focus right now, but if you feel like you need more practice on the face, creating a focus a handspan away from the tip of your nose will be far safer.

 _[ Figure 6 ]_

 _[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/174026401107/2point4#six ]_

Finally, those readers with tails may also find the tail tip a useful focus, too. For those possessing the most dexterous types I've seen ki-users bending the tip around to a curve - much like one would cup a hand - and focussing in the crook. The tail tip can be used much like a finger tip too, and if the tail is long enough to get behind an opponent at close range, you can attack where their defense is usually weaker.

 **2.4.5 Aura**

The aura can be a useful place to pour genki into. Setting up a pattern of high flow rate from the centre outwards can help drag ki from your centre without you needing to actively drive it. Though be careful - ki that has left the centre begins to degrade (unless imbued with a _hold_ intent, more in the next section). This mean you cannot carry around an infinitely dense cloud of ki in case of emergencies, so pick your moment. This preparatory technique is called aura shoring, and forms the basis of a number of nebulous and surrounding techniques we will cover in the future.

The focus for the aura then is the centre or more generally the body - only this time instead of concentrating the genki we are expelling it. This is a harder technique as we usually understand a focus as a point of attention to bring ki _to_ , not to _avoid_. At first you may find splitting ki and channelling it out through the hands, feet and even head easier, but in this case that is very much making ki take the long way round.

 _[ Figure 7 ]_

 _[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/174026401107/2point4#seven ]_

To expel ki cleanly one can imagine an empty, calm bubble growing from the centre, genki riding the surface like dust on a shockwave until the bubble leaves the body. If that doesn't work for you, just as a river's eddy can be disrupted by putting your hand in the centre of the whirlpool and causing all the flotsam and jetsam to flow onward, so you can still the internal natural pools through visualisation and allow genki to meander its own way out the body.

Whilst most ki-users, when creating a barrier, will default to using their hands to channel ki outwards (then anchor to the centre once the technique is in place), being able to pop a barrier without gesturing can help you escape from some hairy situations. Utilising already held ki for a barrier is far faster and more efficient, to boot!

 **2.4.6 Compacting Ki**

Go back to exercise 4.2.2 now, drawing ki into a focus between the hands. I want you to pay close attention to how your genki flows around the point focus - how it is denser at that point and tapers away, the particular flows and branches, the speed and frequency of how these flickers change direction. The exact nature of the densities and behaviour of those eddies will be unique to you.

Next, I want you to compact the ki down to a point however you can. Try this without reading ahead. Remember the method of expectation and imagination.

What happened? Did you try to squeeze the ki, it caving at some point and slipping back through your mental fingers like a water balloon? Or did you spin the ki and tighten the whirlpool, with some licks of ki flying out? Or a mixture of both, a folding and squashing?

There are two schools of thought on the best way to reduce ki down to a point - whether to compress directly, encouraging the ki to head towards the centre point; or to rotate it all together, applying one tight and orderly movement to the whole flow. They both have their pros and cons.

 _[ Figure 8 ]_

 _[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/174026401107/2point4#eight ]_

Compression is the most direct way to compact ki, maintaining a similar density profile to its resting state within a smaller volume. It takes a lot of effort to play whack-a-mole with the ki as it resists this squeeze to maintain its more nebulous form, though this method will come marginally easier with practice. The equal compression will keep the spherical shape, and these balls are relatively simple to direct when they have been released.

Rotating ki requires only one command and so is less taxing in terms of effort. The rotation keeps ki orderly and stable, too. However it will gravitate towards forming a disk, so needs to be pulled out at the poles to form a sphere. The tighter the rotation the harder the shape is to maintain, as the ki tries to fling itself apart along the outer edge. When imbued with particular intents and released, rotating ki is harder to direct than its compressed counterpart.

Some techniques will require compression (ki balls), others rely on rotation (kienzan), and some a mixture of both (beams). We all have a natural inclination towards one or the other, and so whichever is more natural to visualise and maintain will be the best for you to lean on.

The figure shows the symbols for compression and rotation followed by another symbol that the ki flows through, an intent. This intent - _hold_ \- and two very common friends - _pass_ and _push_ \- will be detailed in the next section, 2-5, ready to finally put together in the last section of this chapter, 2-6.


	19. 2-5 Intents: Pass, Push, Hold

_**2-5 - Intents: Pass, Push, Hold**_

* * *

 **Warning! The following section contains exercises that may cause property damage. The author is not liable and the reader proceeds at their own risk.**

 _Prerequisites: exercises in 1.4 and throughout chapter 2. In addition material in 1.3 and 1.5 is referenced._

* * *

Recall way back in 1.3 our discussion of genii's purpose. Genki travels around the body to both assess its status and deliver messages across the entire system to maintain allostasis, the delicate balance of physical processes that keep us alive and comfortable. Beyond the physical, our genki can communicate with the aura of others to cement emotional bonds, support our body language and even act as a pre-warning system in the event of incoming danger.

The particular set of actions genki undertakes is known as its _intent_. It is the intent of genki to request information on cells, the intent to project a sense of danger to others, the intent to prepare the body in synchronicity for a fall. These intents are monumentally complex tasks to undertake even if they are simple enough to conceptualise.

If our body is the hardware, one can think of intents as the code, the genki itself as the ones and zeroes rearranged to form the components of our instruction. Like any other task we ask a computer to perform, we do not need to know exactly how it works on a fundamental level for the computer, or our body, to carry it out. I do not need to enervate each individual muscle fibre consciously in my leg to walk, in the same way I do not need to write machine code to create a printable book manuscript (can you imagine?!).

Although ki-use, as with any task we can learn when young, does take time to be ready to undertake more complicated tasks. We must first master the components. For example walking - we begin by exercising our legs as babies, crawling and trying to stand, our first few hesitant steps without any of the grace it is possible to achieve as we age. It is only much later we learn to dance. The human body didn't evolve to partake in seemingly frivolous acrobatic stunts, but we (or some talented individuals, at any rate) can combine basic components of movement to complete amazing feats. It is the same with ki. Modifying and even completely hijacking intents our body naturally generates and solidifying them through practice will allow us to later perform more intricate techniques with ease.

The intents discussed in this and the next chapter will, for the most part, be these building blocks. As the more lyrical reader may have observed, these intents have one-syllable names. This is by design. Whilst many complex interactions in the body need to occur to take even one step, the entire process can be summarised as _walk_. Similarly, wrapping these relatively instinctual intents into one spoken word - and later one thought - reduces the conscious mental load. Even as we progress and string together some component intents, preserving a one-syllable name helps maintain this simplicity.

Of course, you may be wondering why then there are techniques with very complicated names - the _Makankousappou_ comes to mind - but the naming of techniques comes with its own rich history and advantages separate from the intents used to construct them, and I shall address this later (I'll be irritating many technique users by lifting the veil too, but that's for me to worry about!).

The intent of ki can fall under a number of classifications. Active and passive are the main two types. Active intents are obnoxiously running programs - when released they work unconditionally and will happily carry out their instruction without nuance. _Push_ is a perfect example of this, it will push whatever it is aimed at. Most intents are active.

A passive intent is an intent in waiting. It could be a framework ready to write a message about the status of the body, an intent waiting for a ki-signature to perform the next intent in its instruction set, or a message in itself, like a general proximity warning to others.

Passive intents are usually strung together with other active or potentially active intents, and a long combination of intents can be referred to as a technique.

In addition some intents can be friendly or hostile. Friendly intents mean any free ki can be rewritten or added to, e.g. to chain a series of intents between masters or to send messages between ki-users. _Pass_ is necessarily friendly for the receiver to make use of the ki. _Push_ is necessarily hostile to prevent the person on the other end repurposing any remaining genki to counteract the move. An entire technique can be constructed to be conditionally friendly or hostile dependent on who the ki encounters (barriers or landmine techniques are good examples), but this extra step uses up genki that could be otherwise amplified, losing vital power in an attack. In many circumstances it is better to forgo this condition and ask family and friends to move out the way.

Anyone who has been at the sharp end of a hurtful or damaging remark will tell you it is the impact, not intent, of an action that truly matters. The same is true of ki. Even with carefully constructed techniques and the purest of intentions behind each intent you will into existence, there is always the chance someone will get hurt. A _push_ intent can be more than a playful shove, a _shine_ intent can blind, a _warm_ intent can burn. Please, please, be careful. Never place yourself in a situation where harming others could be possible. Waving your arms and yelling 'that was not my intention' is too little, too late. Intent does not absolve you of responsibility for your actions. With that in mind, let's look at _pass_ , _push_ and _hold_.

The first intent we shall work on is the _pass_ intent. _Pass_ is, in effect, a corruption of a natural process. Recall in 1.5 where we discussed the transfer of subconscious messages from one person to another, how we supplement our read of others' body language with a read of their ki? This repackaging of our genki to make it understandable and useable to others is what we shall be modifying in this section.

Beyond reinforcing social signals, why would anyone want to pass ki? Can it serve a purpose?

When the chips are down, the enemy coming at you full throttle, and everyone is near their limit, instead of creating a barrage of attacks it may be more prudent to _pass_ your ki to the most experienced individual on the team, letting them take full ownership of intent and deliver one, more powerful blow.

In another situation, someone very much lacking in energy through overexertion may be _pass_ ed a boost by their comrades (or enemies - see: my father), the caveat being the ki will need careful management lest it fade extremely quickly. One cannot truly invigorate and replenish the centre itself without the assistance of healing magic, but an injection of ki will give the recipient time to rally themselves.

You may be surprised to hear that most people over the age of 25 have used a _pass_ intent - albeit without a clear memory of doing so, nor did they consciously create the intent. In May 774 everyone in the world was asked to raise their hands by Mr Satan. Even though doing so left folk alarmingly exhausted, nearly everyone obliged the bizarre request, and I am eternally grateful for that. By participating you _pass_ ed your own genki to my father, who then amalgamated and amplified this energy to create a terrifyingly powerful ball-like attack to destroy one demonic and persistent foe. The technique he used is called the genki dama, (spirit bomb), and is exactly that - a _push_ intent formed from genki with a terrifying number of ki signatures.

The real trick behind the technique is not the ball itself but managing the request for genki, sent out as a ripple through the ki-field to all living things, that draws on the shared commonality between ki-users. Now, for plants and many animals, the genki is simply taken until just enough remains for the creature to recover (although I believe this polite safety catch could be removed - our current master of the technique does not wish to try and I don't blame them). For creatures with a cohesive enough sentience to resist the request, permission is given most easily by extending the arms to create a path to draw ki along. The more skilled the genki dama user, the broader the net that can be cast, extending to life forms from many different planets, and combining and amplifying them together in one coherent ball.

Asking for ki from many, many beings is extremely difficult. Giving your genki to one individual is, thankfully, not.

Practising this technique fully will require you to find, for the first time, a willing participant. Unfortunately, they will also need to be a ki-user. For some of you, either in rural areas or working alone through trepidation or choice, this may be an insurmountable challenge. As a responsible person I cannot encourage you to find practice partners through the internet. I hope it is not be big-headed of me to envision local classes for this course springing up in time, but for now, if you cannot practice, at least read the theory.

 **Exercise 2.5.1: Sending** _ **Pass**_

To perform a simple _pass_ , send and concentrate your ki at the end of one limb - the dominant hand or both hands is typical. The genki does not have to be shaped or compressed in any way, only present at the focus. Next, sense your target's ki, and concentrate on the similarities between you. This is tricky, as of course you can only infer your own ki signature, but draw on the commonalities like your humanity, the beat of life and your warmth for one another. This will prime your ki to pass between you, creating an easy-to-catch hook of sorts. Then switch focus to their body to flow your ki towards them.

 _[ Figure 1 ]_

 _[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/176344488152/2point5#one ]_

This priming may be childsplay if you're friends with the recipient; your ki may already be happily passing between you both in some small measure. If you wish to _pass_ ki to someone you greatly dislike, I congratulate you on showing such compassion, though would ask you to think it through, and remember preserving your own conscience is _not_ more important than the safety of the Universe. To pass across a hostile relationship you need to trick ki into thinking there is warmth between you. Try to envision the pain of their wounds or their broader, helpless situation (Vegeta once noted he drew on his withering pity of others' stupidity to counteract his contempt). The difficulty is finding that empathetic connection to make your ki think its new master is safe, but otherwise the technique is the same.

 **Exercise 2.5.2: Receiving** _ **Pass**_

As the receiver, you have a job to do, too. Remember _pass_ is a passive technique, and so you will have to accept the ki. This can be as simple as moving your own genki away from your hand to create a dire need for ki - your body will happily snatch up what it can find. You may struggle at first to take it as your body rejects the ki signature on a matter of principle, a useful automatic defence mechanism, but this initial reluctance will fade with practice.

Taking _pass_ will feel odd at first. Trapped within and caught in the flow may be ki already carrying messages, so the bundle will whisper to you. Their genki will be a different colour, texture and taste to your relatively bland own, theirs vibrant so close. There may be a flash of dissociation as your arm looks and feels not your own until your genki mingles with and restrains the foreign ki, but the sensation will settle. If you can control and compress that ki down as well as your own, then you will have mastered _pass_.

There is an active version of _pass_ , sometimes thought of as _rouse_ , that can be conjured, though as you'd imagine it is more advanced. _Rouse_ requires passing ki that will bring round a person from exhaustion-induced unconsciousness by actively feeding them genki until their system restarts.

In this case the intent is modified from the alert mechanism spread through aura. It is that sense of reaching out with the thought to help, to alarm, and supporting that message with the _pass_ intent that can kick-start your target into taking your ki.

This isn't a healing technique, more an energy boost. It will not mend broken bones or become a replacement for food and water, only restore the bare minimum functionality in allostasis to allow someone to fend for themselves. Please do not take this as permission to let your plants (or worse - pets) go limp so you can attempt a miraculous revival as training. They won't perk up in the way you expect and you will be doing them an injustice.

 _Push_ is the next intent we shall attempt and is one of, if not _the_ workhorse intent, particularly in battle. It is derived from genki's natural instinct to mirror the bodies attempt in rejecting foreign genki and blocking objects, however weakly ki naturally interacts with the outside world and therefore futile the gesture is.

 _Push_ is as it sounds - a ball of relentless potential momentum, often directed, that when interacted with will apply a constant force.

Counterintuitively, the movement of that ball of intent has nothing to do with the force _push_ can apply. Push can be stationary, acting like an area of space rejecting intruders, but more often it makes sense for _push_ to be chasing its own effect to keep applying pressure on an enemy, effectively trapping them against a wall. In fact, many aspects of the _push_ intent are counterintuitive, and to use the intent most effectively one must learn which laws of received physics wisdom are ripe for breaking.

As a biologist, outwitting and upsetting patronising and prescriptivist physicists is a guilty pleasure of mine, so please take to this intent with gusto, if only for me.

If you've even wrestled your way through high school physics you will be aware of the laws of motion. Even if you spent most of the class daydreaming I assure you you'll have heard of these laws through day-to-day cliché, particularly the third.

The first: an object in motion, without any force applied, will stay in motion.

This means a force, a transfer of energy, is required to change an object's direction or speed (velocity). A jetcar only slows down when the brakes are applied, because of atmospheric drag, or gravitational forces fulfilling their constant threat and slamming the car into the ground. Otherwise, in the simplicity of the vacuum of space, the jetcar will continue on its merry way without the driver having to touch the accelerator.

The second: The acceleration of an object is proportional to both the force applied and the inverse mass of the object.

This means the greater the mass of an object, the more force you'd require to accelerate it to match an object of less mass. I am reluctant to say "heavier" or "lighter" here as weight is a manifestation of gravitational forces acting on a mass (and thus you would weigh differently on different planets), but if I do use these words offhand throughout the textbook know I am really referring to your mass or the mass of an object. Physicists can be wonderfully pedantic when it suits them, but I've seen them differentiate whilst mathematicians watch on in horror, so they really should remember they're in a glass house.

The third is the most famous: Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

I told you you would have heard of it. This third law, following from the first two, is the focus of our attention.

Whilst it is true to say you are held down on the Earth's surface by the force exerted by the planet's gravitational field, due to the third law of motion I can also state with equal truth that you're pulling the Earth towards you. In fact, you and the Earth are pulling each other with exactly the same force! But due to the second law of motion - the acceleration being proportional to the force and inverse mass - the Earth's huge mass relative to your own means that you have the greater relative acceleration, resolving to 9.81m/s/s. When you jump the Earth falls back to you, too - just you end up falling far faster.

You might expect then, using ki to push someone back with resounding force would require a truck-load of mass to be hurtling along. Some of you may remember that energy and mass have an equivalency (that ever-famous E=mc^2, where c is the speed of light in a vacuum), and so you may be frantically calculating how much energy you would need to approximate that truck. If so, stop yourself right there (although it's about a millionth of the Sun's per second energy output, in case you were wondering).

 _Push_ breaks this third rule rather spectacularly - that is, if you misunderstand the intent.

 _[ Figure 2 ]_

 _[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/176344488152/2point5#two ]_

If we were sitting next to each other on wheeled chairs and I physically push you with my hands, we would both move away from each other due to recoil, and who moves the most would depend on our relative weights (and sometimes who has the least sticky wheels).

But if I were pushing you with ki, even in the wheeled chairs I'm practised enough that I wouldn't move. Am I holding myself still from the other side with ki? No.

With ki _there is no need for recoil_. The third law is seemingly violated.

Why?

When I push you with my hand, at a fundamental level the force is caused by an interaction between the atoms in your hand and the atoms in my shoulder, specifically the electrons on the outside of those atoms. I'm drawing a lot on those high-school physics days now, but do you remember electrons are negatively charged, that only opposites attract and thus the same charges repel? When two electrons get close enough to each other they will electromagnetically repel, and that will be by exchanging energy in the form of a photon, light, between them. This electromagnetic repulsion is the basis of a real push in physical space, and as energy is exchanged, both electrons experience a force equal and opposite to each other. If you think about it, 99.99999% of our atoms are empty space. The reason we perceive our bodies as solid is due to electrons interacting in such a way. I find this fascinating, though I know more than one undergraduate has found it disturbing.

(If this process is real, does this mean that light itself can push? Yes! Light exerts a force. This is the logic behind the solar sail, a type of propulsion one can use in space, harvesting a star's light like the wind - though, these sails are not nearly as fast as the drives the galaxy at large currently uses (though more environmentally friendly for sure). On Earth, you can find radiometers, a little windmill inside a vacuum bulb with sails black and absorptive on one side and shiny and reflective on the other that spin in the sunlight. I'll leave it as an exercise to work out why the sails turn!)

When using _push_ however, there aren't two electrons interacting. There is only ki acting on electrons. So whilst the push intent effectively converts ki energy to a photon to impart on an electron, it has not originated from an electron in your hand, and thus no electron needs respond in kind. There is no recoil. This means you can throw a truck's-worth of momentum at your friend without batting an eyelid! (Please do not throw a truck's-worth of momentum at your friend, eyelid batted or not.)

In practice there is often some recoil (or the appearance thereof) when throwing a _push_. This is not due to the third law of motion but rather down to two distinct problems, both of which can be eradicated through training.

The first, improper implementation of _push_. _Push_ needs a direction and you will have to have laser precision when encoding this. When huge forces are involved, as it often will be when my friends and family are on the defensive for the planet, just 1% of the energy pointing in the wrong direction can cause an unexpected smack in the face, and can really damage your chances. You'll often see ki-users struggling against their own techniques, and spectators having to leave to conserve their strength when even a tiny fraction of _push_ leaks around the main fighter. Being precise to prevent a _push_ in all directions is both safer and more efficient.

One can of course include conditionals on the _push_ \- asking ki to ignore friends and the environment to save the planet from such overspills of power. Remember though that these more complicated intents take up genki and so will lessen the overall power of the attack, thus these exceptions are often skipped at crunch moments. I've seen ki-users in this situation use genki to effectively increase their gravitational mass and root them to the ground, but it seems to me that focussing first on improving their directional precision with _push_ would be a better use of their time.

The second emergence of recoil is simply because you expect recoil. Remember that genki carries information about priors around the body (our expectations about the world). Our bodies intuitively understand the third law of motion; we anticipate it to the point where if a ball hit a wall and fell down dead without a bounce, we would first reassess our assumptions about what the ball and wall were made from well before questioning physics itself. If you are used to recoil in every action you perform you will be anticipating exactly the same behaviour from _push_ and therefore you will use your own energy against you to satisfy this expectation. (This recoil can have its uses, which we will explore later). Overcoming your own wiring is a matter of relearning what contexts to expect recoil and when not to.

Speaking of expectations, I know you all have grand ones about how this next exercise will go. I know you've seen the movies. The would-be-superhero's power awakening, that first unequivocal and unarguable flash of brilliance that proves their destiny is hurtling towards them: the first flame from their hand shooting into the sky, getting hit by a bus and emerging unscathed from the twisted wreckage, the first yell that shatters a wall of windows. Each hero stares in the mirror in wonder and terror, their path in life now clear. A weeks practice later they're wearing underwear over tights and all the children are screaming their moniker in excitement.

Those stories are a deterrent against you, the general public, from trying to tread that same path. After all, if the destined had their abilities bestowed by aliens or magic or genetics or a supernatural calamity, and your efforts to mimic them don't lead to the immediate success they had, what's the point in you pouring your efforts into trying to coax out an ability you clearly don't possess?

But the Heroes weaving those dramatic stories are only exhibiting showmanship. They worked just as hard as you will be, and their work started with a single, sometimes breathy and definitely paltry _push_.

 **Exercise 2.5.3: Instantaneous** _ **Push**_

As usual settle into a comfortable position, this time with a table or other flat surface at a height you can rest your arm on without straining your back.

 _[ Figure 3 ]_

 _[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/176344488152/2point5#three ]_

Find a straw, or lightweight, empty drinks bottle or can. You'll need a broad, solid object to catch your very diffuse _push_ , but light and round enough to move easily with the force. I know many of you will want to step up the challenge and try something more impressive, but give yourself a fighting chance this early!

Place the bottle in easy reach of your hand. Do not loom over it hoping to see the slightest of movements, otherwise your breath will cause all manner of early excitement. Instead keep your head up and remember not to hold your breath throughout the exercise. On many occasions Pan has found herself coaching students out of breathing hard on their bottles - their concentration so focussed they could not hear their overdramatic wheezing flinging the bottle across the table.

Gather genki in one hand or between both, then switch your focus to the side of the bottle nearest you, feeding genki from the hand's focus to the new one, an action similar to _pass_. In this case really embody that flow, treat it as an extension of your own arm, like your fingers are reaching out to this new point. Imagine the build up of pressure and tension on that point, hold back the urge to push the bottle for as long as possible. Then, when you cannot hold the thoughts coherently anymore, imagine releasing all that tension in one shove with this incorporeal hand. Make the movement with your real hand if you have to (although mind the breeze you create).

In a successful attempt the bottle should ever so slightly rock. The roundest and lightest of bottles may even start to roll. Despite the exhausting level of mental energy and attempts this would most likely have taken you, congratulations are still due! However small a wobble, this is your superhero moment. It may not be as dramatic as the movies, but feel free to be as excited. You can add telekinesis to your list of abilities now!

You may have experienced recoil against your _push_ ing hand, almost a form of haptic feedback so real you may have double-taken thinking you'd actually touched the bottle. For now do not worry about suppressing this, especially as it acts as confirmation that the _push_ did manifest. To train yourself out of it, tell yourself you're surprised (even if you don't feel it) every time this recoil happens. Eventually you'll believe yourself.

 **Exercise 2.5.4: Continuous** _ **Push**_ **es**

The next step is to chase the bottle with _push_. You'll need to maintain that flow of genki from your hand to the bottle's focus point, shifting the point as it retreats from you. If performed correctly, the bottle's roll will speed up as your _push_ accelerates it (I usually end up moving the focus at a constant, easy to control speed rather than continually accelerating - I wouldn't want to overshoot and _push_ the inside of the bottle too hard, effectively exploding it). If you can resist the urge to climb on the table and follow the bottle with your hand then you are doing fantastically well, and have better self-control than many of the people I've taught (although, my students were excitable children for the most part).

Finally, stamina training - pinning the bottle to the wall. This is exactly how it sounds. Push the bottle against the wall and suspend it in midair - as if held with a hand or finger - for as long as you can. This will require a constant flow of genki and, as your natural genki grows, a measured flow of genki not to crush the bottle. If you can lower your outstretched hand but keep up the flow and concentration, you will have mastered this exercise.

(A tip - this time do not focus on the outside of the bottle closest to you, but instead on the inside of the bottle closest to the wall. Take off the bottle's sleeve to view your target if you have to. This will prevent the object from rolling outside your precise _push_ and flinging off into someone's face.)

From then you can stretch the challenge by increasing the weight of the bottle by adding water, or changing the object (avoid water-filled glasses above hospital beds - dad learnt the hard way) or, even tricker, splitting your ki into more than one thread and pinning more objects.

With both practice and genki amplification, _push_ will become one of the greatest assets in your intent arsenal, so it goes without saying you should practice this as one of the daily basics.

 _Hold_ is our final workhorse intent. No matter your experience, when in battle you cannot maintain perfect concentration on all intents at all times. You need to hold your body together, to fly, to brace for impact, to block, to create and charge attacks. Meanwhile your ki is decaying away moment by moment…

Think about the ki-user's predicament this way: if we know there is a maximum rate at which you can draw on your genki (let's ignore amplification for now) but you know there is a fixed proportion of that genki that will break down per second, then there must be a point at which the rate of decay equals the rate at which genki is summoned. Without any intervention then there is a maximum amount of genki one can have available at one time. So then, how is it possible to charge huge attacks or barriers?

 _Hold_ is a way to halt that decay, or to keep an assigned form or intent running without your mind having to constantly rewrite genki. _Hold_ patches up fading intents, spending ki reserves to do so. It will maintain whatever it was told to, for good or for ill. If you tell _hold_ to keep _push_ ing it will use up the rest of the ki reserve in that technique to make that happen. If you need to _hold_ genki in reserve to charge an attack (like the genki dama), _hold_ will do its best to shore up the ki signature and ensure the genki remains programmable.

Used in battle it can create landmines or tripwires that can last long after the ki-user who made them has even passed away.

May father used _hold_ to great effect once. Trapped underwater with (the non-ki-sensing) Freeza circling above him, he produced two ki-blasts and locked them off with _hold_ , keeping them stable as he swum away, only releasing them upwards when he was clear of any possible retaliatory blasts.

A ball of ki imbued with, say, _glow_ , will only shine as long as it is being fed, before stuttering and failing as the genki degrades. Add _hold_ to the reservoir and the faint light can last hours - a perfect companion when reading under the blankets late into the night.

 **Exercise 2.5.5:** _ **Hold**_

To perform hold, go back to the very last exercise. Pin your object to the wall and keep it steady. Now for the new intent. The sensation is a snag in the mind, a pause in breath, a stutter in music, the moment of silence as the waves along the shoreline about turn, the peak of a rollercoaster. That momentary sense of stillness whilst in motion is what you want to harness and pass on.

 _[ Figure 4 ]_

 _[ groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/176344488152/2point5#four ]_

Take the threads of _push_ still travelling down your arm to the ki. Tie those threads together in your mind but still grip them like reigns - this act should free your arm of ki flow to the technique. Recall that sense of stillness with _hold_ onto the knot then let go.

If all has gone well, the object should stay stuck to the wall. With practice and amplification you will be able to leave the room completely. Note - this means buckets of water and other vessels of nefarious possibility do not need to be balanced over door frames, only pinned to ceilings.

In future you may want to keep a thread of focus on the technique to direct its motion, or to add in a break to _hold_ (i.e. _hold_ until triggered in some manner) but that's getting ahead of ourselves.

These three intents are mere examples of the myriad available to you, and form the backbone of many other intents and techniques to come.

In the next section you'll be performing _shine_ to finally see your ki (and to show off to friends) and I have another story I want to tell you to close the chapter - the rest of Saiyaman's true origin story.


	20. 2-6 First Light: Shine

_**2-6 - First Light**_

* * *

 **Warning! The following section contains exercises that may cause burns, damage to vision and irradiation. The author is not liable and the reader proceeds at their own risk.**

 _Prerequisites: exercises in 1.4 and throughout chapter 2. In addition material in 1.6 and 1.7 is referenced._

* * *

I left the story of the Cell Games at a conventional point. The evil had been vanquished, there was a hero of sorts ready to collect the spoils and the world was rejoicing. Neat and tidy. But real-life is a mess, and after every story that messy life must go on.

That afternoon, as Mr Satan posed for cameras and collected his accolades, out of the spotlight my friends and I gathered ourselves and limped home. I flew back to the mountains - alone.

My solitary return did not go unnoticed. There on the veranda I had to break the news to Mom that my father had died to save us all and was put into that predicament by my own recklessness. Mom collapsed on the spot. She heaved sobs into my shoulder, knuckles shock white, gripping my still-torn gi. In that moment I was her strongest connection to him. I could do no more than try and comfort her the way she would have me - by petting her head, telling her everything was okay even if it wasn't and hoping she'd come round.

The trees' shadows grew long before she had strength enough to hold me tight and remember to reassure me in kind. She was right, he had made his own decision to treat this death as his final and I was not the cause. But the depth of her grief said otherwise. Loss is a funny thing. For my family and friends loss of a loved one can be temporary, but in the moment it hurts as keenly. For Dad to make the decision to stay dead indefinitely, to hear his reasoning for doing so in his own words before his final goodbye… in some ways it was harder to understand than if there was simply the expected empty silence.

The next day was declared a worldwide public holiday. West City too became a wall of noise and colour, although Capsule Corp was notably muted in its display of reverie. The little energy we mustered for celebration was for Trunks, a thank you and goodbye, with some of the day as a memorial service to my father. I pushed to keep that portion short. I knew wishing for others to grieve with me would be tantamount to an admission of the truth of my guilt-ridden devastation so I kept my longing deep.

Even with constant love and reassurance from family and our friends it took me many years to accept that I was not responsible for shattering Mom that day. Dad had flitted in and out of my life growing up, but he always returned to us to be by our side. Now he couldn't. My little brother was on the way, and me, Mom and Grandfather would have to be all the small family he had. At first we were scared what would happen should a new menace surface, but very quickly - too quickly some would say - we relaxed. I threw myself into my studies, trying to learn all I could about the world I had worked so hard to save. That went a long way to providing me what solace I needed and would give me a taste for the career I love to this day.

Time marched on. Little Goten went from crying to babbling to non-stop chit-chattering and tugging on my writing arm at all hours to go play with him and so, sensing the valued distraction but distraction nonetheless, when I hit the right age Mom suggested I attend Orange (now Satan) City's main high school. Making friends my own age sounded wise in principle - I'd never kept in touch with those fleeting friends I had made other than a Namekian named Dende - but I was nervous. Would I score high enough to get in? Would I fit in with non-martial artists? Would my life's history be uncovered?

As is typical of me I visited the school and got into hot water twice before my real attendance.

The first time was for the entrance examinations. Coming from out of district the tests took place on a Saturday. The six were brutal in schedule, one after the other with lunch in-between. Mom was insistent on travelling with me, and whilst I tried to argue with her on grounds that I could navigate a city I'd flown over many times just fine, I eventually caved. In truth I'd never quite believed her (or anyone else for that matter) that I was a smart kid (at least smart enough to pass these tests) and her presence on the ride over calmed me. I could read her nerves but her reassurances weren't lies. _She_ believed that I could pass at least.

Orange Star High surprised me in its familiarity. Despite never having stepped foot in a school before I'd read books and comics set in them, and Orange Star High was a picture perfect representation of one. There were lockers, water fountains, places to change your shoes, signs above each classroom door, long, discoloured shadows on notice boards where class rankings must have been posted the semester before. I didn't feel as out of place as I expected to and that settled me just in time for the long slog.

To cut a long day short, my Mom's careful balancing of tutoring and letting me explore the world's knowledge at my own frantic pace paid off. I finished every exam with time to spare and was given permission to leave the final one early, an opportunity I gladly took, much to the chagrin of my fellow testees.

True to her word that she would busy herself, Mom was not where I'd waved her goodbye. My ki-sense pointed to her browsing the mall two streets back. I took a moment to stretch and breathe in on the steps bathed in sunlight - before a flash of silver caught my attention.

A switch blade.

I saw enough of the possessor before he disappeared into the sidewalk's crowds, jacket on and hood up even in the afternoon's warmth. His intent was trained on a young woman ladened with bags.

My feet carried me before my tired brain had a chance to intervene.

He grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her into an alley, the tight throng of distracted pedestrians masking her silent panic to everyone but me. I followed and only then in cold shock realised I had no concrete plan.

He pressed the knife to her neck. She closed her eyes and whimpered. I had to defuse the situation of course, but a selfish part of me feared for myself. I hadn't even started school, yet I was risking exposure? I needed to hide my identity. I grabbed the first idea I could.

I concentrated my bubbling anger, forcing it to a frisson on my back. The gold exploded over me. The Super Saiyan transformation. Blue eyes, blond hair and a mean glare doesn't sound much of a disguise I admit, but it was all I had to hand and was remarkably effective.

I snatched the blade.

Disarmed before he could fully register my presence the mugger's anger dissolved to a primal fear, cemented when I squeezed the knife, the blade as pliant as butter. The switch mechanism snapped. The blade and handle tinkling to the floor became the only sound in the alley. Knowing he was outmatched, he ran. The woman let out a belated strangled yell.

Not wanting to risk misunderstanding I jumped to the apartment building roof faster than she could follow. From on high I watched her tentatively rejoin the crowd and find her way to a meter maid, the mugger long gone.

Assuming her safe I left to find Mom, letting my appearance snap back to normal but my heart still pounding and rattled by my boldness. I had, in the middle of the day, in the middle of town, mere metres from a crowd, transformed. And it had felt the right thing to do.

For someone who claims she can't read ki, my mother sure is accurate with her hunches. She chalk her suspicion over my mood to me not wanting to admit I was nervous about the exam results. I barely avoided having to admit my recklessness, and vowed to not let my soft-heart cloud my judgement again.

I did not keep to my word.

The second time I visited Satan City was for registration. I had ("of course", according to everyone else) passed the entrance examinations with flying colours; my high score in science had even stood until they changed the exam style some ten years or so ago. I travelled alone this time. After all, a high school student shouldn't need their mother holding their hand. This ended up being a very wise decision as no sooner as I'd landed in that same alleyway screams erupted from the street. An old man stood frozen to a crosswalk, wide-eyed, watching helplessly as an out-of-control truck careened towards him.

Without conscious thought I transformed. It gave me the speed I needed to bring the truck to a screeching stop mere centimetres from the fear-struck man, fingers twisting the metal of the grill despite my gentle efforts. The truck persisted, then slumped back onto its tires with a short groan. I fled in the following silence.

The rescue took three seconds at the very most but a whole street of people saw me that time. I had to hope that their distraction helping both the gentleman and clearly ill driver would make them doubt my existence, though I knew the deep gouges my heels made in the asphalt could not be waved away as pure imagination.

I stowed my green jacket in my bag for the rest of the visit. The ink hardly had time to dry on the paperwork before I high-tailed it out of there.

You might say then that these two incidents were my first foray into heroism, that they mark the true beginnings of The Great Saiyaman. I'm not so sure. In both cases I left the scene as soon as the obvious risk to life was averted, but there was still grave danger - the mugger could have come back, the truck driver could have needed a short flight to the ER. Perhaps with such lofty hindsight I expect too much of myself, though I'd like to think any aspiring Heroes reading this belaboured story will do better than I did and stay the course.

The next appearance of the Super Saiyan (or Golden Fighter as he'd been named, unbeknownst to me) was on my first day of school proper. I'd fallen behind schedule and had landed too far from school, feeling that alleyway to be cursed. On my suspiciously athletic run through the streets to class a commotion caught my eye.

A car screamed around a corner on two wheels, police in pursuit. Pedestrians dived for cover. Loose cash fluttered to the ground.

A bank heist, a real-life bank heist, and a serious risk to life at that.

I knew I'd have to do something. One routine transformation, a whiplash-inducing stop for the getaway car, bullets safely disposed of then I was back on my way. I barely broke my stride. My disguise was working - no one seemed to care, I was perfectly safe.

What I did not count on, however, was Videl.

I wish I could say our first meeting had a spark, a Cupid's arrow to our hearts or a red string's tension pulling our destinies closer. I wish I could tell you a romantic story starting with me full of coy confidence and her the taken damsel that worked its way to a steady crescendo, or each of us taking a passionate disliking to the other over a misunderstanding of circumstance and falling in love suddenly, accidentally. Those would have made tidy stories to tell. But if there's one constant thread in my life, it's this: whilst the end of every life-chapter has at the very least a quiet joy, the process of getting to that sweet ending is pure, convoluted torture for everyone involved.

In truth I'd say Videl and I met four times.

The first time was in passing on that very day. She'd arrived a moment too late to see the Golden Fighter in action and accosted me, quizzing me as a bystander. Meanwhile I was in the process of sneaking from the scene with all the subtlety of the bank robbers I'd laid flat. I feigned ignorance and was fortunate enough that her ire at missing the show meant she paid me no heed and I could scamper away.

My first impression of her? Only the sigh of relief that this boisterous and intimidating girl drew more attention to herself than me.

So you see, not much of a spark to speak of.

Our second meeting and first real introduction was less than an hour later. We have Videl's old, now mutual friend to thank for that. Erasa, the social butterfly and romantic fiend, was the first person to formally welcome me into our class by pulling little lost me into the empty seat beside her. Flagrantly ignoring the class that was being led from below, she introduced herself and her friends, including Videl. It was then I found out that the young lady searching for the block of the Golden Fighter to knock clean off was Mr Satan's daughter - the man who had taken credit, limelight and burden for my defeat of Cell. And it was also then I found out the Golden Fighter was already a local celebrity. Whilst she recognised me from the crimescene that morning, Videl (thankfully) dismissed me as too great a goober to be the Hero. This defence has saved me an offensive number of times, actually.

Beyond my initial shock at her parentage I didn't pay Videl much heed, either. My first day of school was such a mess that I was preoccupied to the eyeballs with that. The teachers had singled me out as having the highest entry scores and as such I was an officially-sanctioned target. By the end of first period they'd found out I supposedly commuted for ten hours every day, lived in the mountain district (my subtle accent that pops out when stressed probably didn't help me there) and was wearing the same clothes as the now infamous Golden Fighter. All that was saving my heritage and feats from exposure was the colour of my hair, natural knack for social awkwardness being mistaken for a lack of physical prowess, and the ubiquitous dimwittedness of teenagers (I include my young self in that - like I said I was never subtle).

And slow to piece together the puzzle they were. After lunch I played baseball for the first time. In my eagerness to win social points I jumped a good ten metres to make a catch. Mom warning me to act normally was all well and good but I didn't truly understand what normal _was_. When you use ki all the time those amplifications are as easy as breathing (and we'll be covering them next). Even after toning it down my performance was impressive and I was invited to every after-school sports club you can dream up. Thankfully my 'long commute' made it reasonable to decline participation and, after a hard day that my identity barely escaped intact from, I could finally relax.

So there we go. The first time Videl heard of me she wanted to flatten me. The first time she _saw_ me she treated me with casual indifference. And both times I was terrified of her. Soulmates.

That near-disastrous first day brings me to my third meeting with Videl, and the origin story I wanted to tell you. You see, I knew I had to retire the Golden Fighter - that day had been too close for comfort and even the most self-absorbed of teenagers would have done the math eventually; Videl got close enough during our introduction. But I also knew I wouldn't be able to resist getting myself in heroic trouble again, leaving me and my family exposed.

So I did what all my friends and family do when they have a tricky problem with no obvious solution: pay a visit to Auntie Bulma and hope she can engineer you out of the hole.

In retrospect I'm sure she would have much preferred to tackle the "possible trouble with a girl" she assumed I was having at first, but at that stage even I wasn't aware of the problem brewing there. Still, she offered to help and her solution to the Golden Fighter was simple: to jerry-rig a prototype device she'd been working on, the capsule watch. Not the standard discrete-capsule-inside-watch that you all know, but a specific design that threads the shrinking matrix throughout fabric and default targets to the wearer's form, rematerialising over the wearer's body. In short, it was an instantaneous costume, one I could pop on and off to fight crime in a moment.

The Great Saiyaman's name was my idea but it was Bulma that designed his look. To this day I'm impressed that she managed to pull it all together in one afternoon. I very much consider myself indebted to her for the success of The Great Saiyaman and all who follow. That chunky watch is not much different to the slim-line version Heroes and Shadows wear today - though theirs are discreetly hidden in jewelry and other accessories.

Here's an inside scoop for you: those outfits don't replace my current clothes but shrink over them. It's atrocious in the heat, and what do we experience a lot of in Satan City? I have many-a-time begrudgingly hit that button when in full suit, (yes, with tie and suit jacket) and have waddled my way across the city to deal with some stand off or other. Contrary to popular belief there was never a meaner stand-in for me, I was just perpetually tired and sweaty on those days and therefore not in the mood to give many chances. Give a man a break, and offer your friendly neighbourhood Hero or Shadow a drink.

Bulma's disguise worked well. Within days the Golden Fighter was consigned to history and The Great Saiyaman garnered admirers and nervous detractors alike. Kids loved the look (well, Goten did - he was six) and the Hero even got a movie, my cameo in which was sadly cut out. My stuntwork on the Age 780 loose-reboot is front and centre, at least!

The Great Saiyaman gave me the breathing space I desperately needed to work out the kind of adult I wanted to be. Though my absolute secret wouldn't last long and at the time I cursed by luck for that, being unmasked turned out to be the best thing to ever happened to me.

You see, the disguise worked perfectly against everyone, except the one person it needed to. The one person beside myself and family who had unwittingly the most to lose. Videl.

I spent half of my first expedition as a Hero catching up with Videl in a vain attempt to save her. I'll admit I was underestimating her; I feared that she'd been given the title of Crimefighter purely due to her father's massaged achievements, and that she was in more danger than she realised, it being more luck and sheer bravado carrying her safely through any previous skirmishes.

(NB in truth this was my second outing, but I don't count the reckless drivers I put to right. They had no taste in Hero names and spread the wrong one so I'm going to rewrite history if you don't mind.)

When I reached the scene she was more than holding her own, knocking down two men twice her size with admirable efficiency and methodical style.

I'd like to state for the record that I _did_ play my part by saving her from a stray bullet, though she maintains she only got into that predicament because I was a bumbling distraction. We'll have to agree to disagree. Still, we rallied and captured the fleeing robbers before they had chance to cause more trouble. Working together the task was simple. A quick success, I thought, one that would lead to future professional collaborations.

But despite my very best efforts to play the mysterious Hero, Videl rumbled me, and that was the third time we met.

Perhaps she recognised my voice, or maybe her ki sense was more developed than I believed and her 'intuition' clued her in. Either way within thirty seconds of interrogation she tricked me into explaining how I had snuck out of class and thus undid my night's hard work developing a cryptic Hero's persona. I had the dance down pat and everything.

Auntie Bulma was right when she said I can be all brain and no sense at times.

What was worse, was Videl hadn't only seen me leaping about in a costume. I'd used enough of my abilities to both shock and intrigue Videl, and unfortunately she knew from our very brief interactions that I could be a bit of a push-over.

You see, one of Videl's greatest traits is her tenacity. If she has an idea, or a goal, or any nebulous vision that she deems technically achievable however low the probability, she will have no qualms pursuing it to the end that she desires. In this case - Videl wished to learn to fly.

Nowadays she's sweeter and more subtle than she was when we were in our teens - then being as blunt as the broad side of a tree-trunk to the face - and I'd wager that anyone who's worked with her on one of her many altruistic projects wouldn't feel as though they'd been guided by her. In fact, many come away with the impression that they were the brains and muscle of the entire outfit. After watching my wife work the floor of a charity auction it's plain to see that she inherited her father's charisma with a stark upgrade in finesse. If my wife wants something she will bend wills and even reality to get it.

I said to you a long time ago that my first student was Videl and that I trained her all backwards. Let me elucidate. The choice to train Videl backwards was less a conscious choice and more the mad scrabbling of a boy attempting to save his own neck.

When she discovered I was due to compete in the Tenkaichi Budokai she saw only one path to prove herself. I was to teach her how to fly, and then I was to fight her in the upcoming tournament. This was not up for discussion. She dangled my identity and family's safety over the precipice with casual indifference, and I had to yield to her. Yes, my first student blackmailed me into giving up my secrets. That may sound horrific to you. I'm surprise it hasn't happened more often, really. But I forgave her. She'd grown up in the limelight and saw it at worst an irritation but with overall great benefits, so why wouldn't I learn to like the same? At that point she didn't know my last and greatest secret either, and one that I was desperate to keep from the daughter of the man who took credit for my victory. I could not in good conscience allow her to find out that I was the Golden Fighter, a Super Saiyan and therefore the young boy in the Cell Games. Her father's success - back then at least - was predicated on a lie and I did not want to be the one to drive a wedge between her and her father, or cause the world, her world at least, to be laid to ruin with one tiny admission. So I lied through omission again.

The upside of competing in the Tenkaichi Budokai is that I got to skip school. You wouldn't think I of all people would have taken so easily to the idea, but with the stress of keeping The Great Saiyaman secret and behaving like a normal human it was far easier for me to abscond with a stack of books and work from home for a little while - just like old times. I don't think I could have managed my time at school juggling all that and a hot-headed Videl waiting for one misstep before blurting out my identity.

Goten was convinced that my silly foray into public school was over by then, a two week flight of fancy and I was back for good to play with him all day. My mother, despite being a stickler for academic focus is also an extremely practical woman. She saw the benefits of the prize money that our family could sweep. Even my father was able to attend nominally for the day - yes, that surprised us all, too.

I had to recondition myself and train Goten in that time, though I found his skills surprisingly well-honed - not only had he been roughhousing with Trunks but our mother had been teaching him forms both as a reward for completing his homeschooling and for his own protection. Given that, I was confident our family could at least put in a good showing against the others. All I'd need were a few days alone with him.

But those few days were cut short by the arrival of Videl.

Videl was indeed serious about me teaching her how to fly, so much so she'd broken into the school administration office and dug out my address. Did I mention that it was a five hour jetcar flight between Mount Paozu and Satan City to boot? Like I said, she chases what she wants and sinks her teeth into it until all protestations are subdued. I was the dead deer in her jaws. She chewed my ear off for leaving school to train, assuming I was ditching her. And because of that accidental transgression I was coerced into making up for it post-haste. So, having no time to teach the nuances of sensing ki and everything else you, dear reader, have had to learn - I had to go straight to flight.

I was an extremely fortunate teacher, however. Videl had trained her body hard her entire life and was already honed in mind enough that her ki flowed strongly, her power far greater than her father's. It made a weird sort of sense. Like many people she watched the Cell Games and that day learnt the "great feats" he father was capable of. Since she idolised him and wanted to make him proud she'd spent her time striving for those dizzying heights, hoping one day she could be a worthy successor. That one lie spurred Videl on so much that by her mid-teens she had already surpassed her father.

My intention had been to fit in two weeks of solid training with my brother. Despite Goten's terrifying progress with Mom he couldn't fly. Imagine that! The kid had puzzled out the knack of the super saiyan transformation and yet had not quite worked out the ki control required for flight. I guess this speaks to the motivating power of stories with children, plus Goten's backwards-yet-ultimately-successful way of doing most things. That talent he got from Dad, I'm sure.

Thankfully then Goten took very little prompting, given he had otherwise perfect ki control. I even had to tell him to slow down and buzz off as Videl was getting snappy, her pride taking a beating; she was not used to struggling in martial arts. After enough failure to obliterate anyone's confidence I managed to convince her to sit still and learn a few basics. Whilst I did not have the words I have now, I muddled through, teaching her the exact intent that I will teach you now.

(2.6.1 - _Shine_ )

That afternoon we sat facing each other. I spoke to her of the life all around us, how energy flows within us and in the carpet of lush, verdant mountain grass unrolling beneath us to the horizons and mountains, how I could sense it and she would be able to too, if she took the time to listen. I needed to show her ki was real, that she too possessed it, and to do that she had to physically see it. So, I put my palms together, took that breath, and drew my ki to a focus between my hands. Then I thought of sudden understandings, the first rays of dawn and the first breath of a newborn, stars, light streaming through windows chasing back shadows and the Sun appearing from behind a cloud, announcing my own presence to a room - the mobile of ideas that in my mind support the intent to _shine_.

The ki transformed to visible photons - just enough to see in the daylight, and Videl's face, both literally and metaphorically, lit up. She inspected it, shuffling close enough to touch, although her nose would have passed straight through.

I recommend you get that close, too. See its shape and how it pulsates with the wavering intent, how that communicates back to you and you hear its whisper. There's no shame in marvelling at truly seeing your ki for the first time (or rather, such a direct effect of it) and you should take every moment to relish it.

Videl set to work, and it was difficult for her as she tripped through all the faults we've covered so far together (holding the breath, subconscious tensing, ki frantically clinging to its original purpose) but eventually a jewel of light appeared between her shaking hands, flickered in its surprise and confusion at its manifestation, then as suddenly as it blossomed it blinked out of existence. Videl near-collapsed through the effort, but she'd done it.

Her shining eyes, the pride swelling in them... for me that memory is as crisp as the present reality. At that exact moment I felt that same pure pride in her as her teacher.

That first session went remarkably smoothly. In another reality it may not have done. You may think _shine_ a benign ability. And it is, if it behaves itself. Whether it does or not is less to do with runaway accidents and more a reflection of your ability to control your curiosity.

Intents are just that. Your intention. If you _intend_ to make a soft glow and hold that confidence you will. But a slip of thought when straining your mind can overcharge the intent, making a flash grenade. If your mind treads lightly and stick to topic then _shine_ will come to life without having to know the exact wavelength of light or quantity of energy required.

 _[ Figure 1 ]_

 _[_ _groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/184833555592/2point6#one_ _]_

Given both intents work on a similar principle (conjuring photons to interact with light), then like _push_ , _shine_ can have similar difficulties when focusing the intent. And like _push_ , curiosity can get the better of some users. I did think about shying away from listing these possibilities, but I believe it more prudent to flag them and the consequences of not heeding my warnings.

The visible section of the light spectrum is only a very narrow band. Other wavelengths are available; radio and microwaves at longer wavelengths (lower energies), and UV and X-ray at shorter wavelengths (higher energies). In fact a _shine_ intent created with the Sun in mind will create a blackbody _shine_ , meaning there will not be one pure colour but a mix of many wavelengths, some extending into the infrared and UV in very low quantities, exactly like the Sun. One has to add the idea of 'purity' to narrow the band of colour. If you can make a vibrant green I'll be very impressed.

Within that simplicity lies a danger. Creating high energy photons isn't without consequence. Go too high, even by double the energy, you'll be creating UV photons and give yourself sunburn. Go too low, think the light too faint and pump up the quantity of photons and you may hurt yourself with infrared light.

Get even sillier and increase the energy per photon by orders of magnitude and you'll create X-ray and gamma radiation. Note, do not think radiating yourself with this light will help you develop superpowers. Practising with this textbook is what will help you develop 'superpowers'. All _shine_ ing high energy light on yourself will do is cause cancerous mutations.

I know, I know. Playing with such power is tempting. Thankfully, I believe anyone interested in eventually using their newfound abilities to conjure a gamma radiation torch for their macabre amusement would have long killed themselves off by attempting the stunts in the next chapter.

Applying a direction to the light much like _push_ can both spare you energy and accidentally blind someone, so be mindful of the intensity of light you're creating in these circumstances. Stick to an omni-directional _shine_ until you're confident gauging the strength. Although, a laser _shine_ can be useful. I have a feeling I will soon be strong-armed into demonstrating my abilities at work and when I eventually relent to pressure I have decided to create my own laser pointer for use in lectures. A well-controlled laser can be fun with pets, too - I know the cats (and old dinos) at Capsule Corp got a good run-out with a flick of our fingers!

But I'm off track again. I have a story to finish.

I'm not sure when I began to fall for Videl. It would be neat of me to say it was exactly that moment, as the breeze trailed through the long grass, Videl's deliberate breaths and determined muttering, her brow, temples and chest shining with the effort. In reality I only observed those things in passing, overcome with admiration only. If you would have told me then and there that I was to marry this girl I would have been beyond confused and mightily embarrassed. Given the difficult situation she'd put me in I was more continually baffled by her sheer force of will. If I did find that as attractive as I do now, well, my frontal lobes were certainly not informed.

Videl has since admitted that she fell for me first, that she wanted to impress me by both taking to my teaching quickly and catching my eye. I wouldn't have noticed her prettied appearance if she'd kicked me in the head (which she has done many times) and my lack of social prowess at that age compounded matters. Still, reminding her she's a softie at heart is a fun tease.

Whilst Videl graduated from my cobbled-together classes we never fulfilled the second of her demands by having a one-on-one at the Tournament. I even attended as the Great Saiyaman, by then our public personas known acquaintances. Sadly, Videl was by all appearances gravely injured by an unscrupulous competitor, the damage's extent made worse by her stubbornness - she refused to throw in the towel even as her bones shattered. I had to be held back to prevent me interfering with the match. So I do know her feelings towards me were reciprocated by then, even if I denied them at the time.

And that day became the fourth and final time we met.

The unpleasant individual who nearly took Videl's life was part of a larger, far more formidable group. These outright villains were targeting me, my family and friends, then set their sights on the entire world. We had to abandon the tournament to try and save everyone from the horrors they promised would befall the planet. The Potential Apocalypse was not televised this time. I'm glad no one witnessed it.

Videl wanted to take a stand too, but was unable to keep up on the journey. She knew then she wouldn't stand a chance.

Then the moment I'd been fearing for so long came and went in a moment.

She asked, ever so quietly, whether I was the golden fighter. I steeled myself, knowing this to be the end of our growing friendship. I thought a full stadium had seen me transform so there was no point hiding it. I tried to apologise for lying but she stopped me, asking if my friends and family were the ones at the Cell Games, and whether that made me the little boy, whether we were the ones to kill Cell instead of her father.

My heart was in my throat. I couldn't choke out an explanation.

By my breath was caught more by the way she looked at me.

Not in shock or fear that a mere child would have been capable of such a feat, or anger at my lies, but only a relieved peace as the final puzzle piece clicked into place.

Despite having confirmation that her father was for all intents and purposes a sham, she, above all, was _proud_ of me.

She sent me off with good luck, a 'keep safe' and 'hurry back'. And I did indeed return to her.

She says it was then she decided to date me, as though I wouldn't have had a choice in the matter. And I really didn't, but I didn't complain. Looking back I don't think I'd have it any other way. Who else would be secretly corny enough to don a Hero's suit and become The Great Saiyaman 2?

 _[ Figure 2 ]_

 _[_ _groundbreakingsci-stuff dot com/post/184833555592/2point6#two_ _]_

In the next chapter we will begin to amplify genki to enhance the basic ingredients and develop the supers - super-strength, super-stoicity and super-speed.


End file.
